Forever and Always
by Southern Magnolia
Summary: Complete! A story of the love in Haruka's life, and how quickly it can be stolen away...
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Okay, I'm going to say this once and get it over with. The characters and places within this story do not belong to me, they belong to Naoko Takeuchi. With the exception of two very little characters, which will come in their own time.... You'll know who they are! -

Author's Notes: Okay... Some of you are not going to like this story o.o Try not to be too cruel with your flames. But review! - I need encouragement to finish a story!

Haruka ran. Her steps were sure, and her movements swift. She didn't watch where she was going, trusting her feet to carry her to her destination. Her inner turmoil tore at her soul, heartbeats seeming to chant out softly with its wild beating. Her mind was in obvious agreement, verbalizing her heart's words in her head.

No.

It's not true.

No.

No.

NO!

The last word screamed so loudly in her head that she stumbled and fell to her knees. The impact with the ground caused her to gasp, and her body welcomed the quick intake of breath. She unwillingly gave her body a moment or so to revitalize itself after running over three miles. In her lack of motion, her mind fell back to an event that had occurred just over eight months ago.

Eight months and some odd days earlier...

Haruka had returned home one evening to find her beloved sobbing on the couch. Going over to her immediately, she pulled the green-haired girl into her arms. "Michiru? Michiru, what's wrong?"

As if just realizing she was there, Michiru sat up to look at the blonde. "Oh, H-Haruka..." She lifted her left hand to wipe off her face, the diamond on her ring finger winking in reflected light briefly. "I should h-have told you right a-away... but I... I j-just couldn't..."

"Told me what, waga koi?"

"Y-you remember... that man at the jewelry store a c-couple weeks ago...?"

Haruka scowled darkly at the memory. "Yes. As soon as he found out I was a woman, he quit taking us seriously and started hitting on you."

Her companion nodded miserably. "Him... I r-ran into him a few d-days later, and-" Michiru paused as a sob choked her up briefly, but she forced herself to continue." H-he... Oh, Haruka, he raped me!"

The blonde's expression darkened. Murderous. It quickly faded, though, as she immediately remembered the need to comfort her fiancée. Holding to her tightly, she allowed Michiru to cry, tears soaking the front of her shirt.

"I-I tried to forget it, b-but... I was feeling s-sick lately, so I went to the doctor, a-and..."

The realization hit Haruka so hard, has she not been sitting, she would have surely fallen. "You're pregnant."

Michiru nodded miserably.

Haruka let her continue to cry, holding onto her lovingly, whispering words of comfort softly. He soft words did not match the look in her eyes. Had Michiru looked up then, she would have noticed the murderous glint in her lover's eyes.

Haruka rose and started running once again, despite the complaints from her body. She could not feel the wind's comforting embrace as it blew through her hair, nor could she hear the sounds of the night surrounding her as she sped through the forest. As she ran, she allowed her memories to wash over her once again...

The past eight months had passed in relative happiness. The couple tried to disregard the true origins of the life forming itself within Michiru's body, and just think of the child as their own. It was obvious, though, from her worsening condition that something inside Michiru just did not accept this. It had been painfully obvious ever since the trial.

When the jury had learned that Michiru was a lesbian, one could almost see their minds changing from the verdict that was so blatantly obvious to all of them. Despite her disappointment, and the surprise of all those around her (even the judge could not keep her own jaw from dropping, Haruka was not surprised at the jury's returned verdict of innocence after only a few minutes of deliberation.

Obviously as disgusted as Haruka and Michiru's friends and family, the judge had released the defendant without restricting herself in voicing her disappointment in the jury.

Michiru had refused to go through it again, even with promises of a new, more open-minded jury. She just wanted to go on with her life.

Haruka had killed the man, of course. In the time following when his death had been discussed on the news, everyone she knew gave her a knowing look.

The murder was never even brought to trial. The police, at every turn, had denied being able to find any evidence. Used to a life of fighting without leaving a trail behind, Haruka had left the scene of the crime clean, in that sense. But then Haruka had watched as the chief destroyed what little evidence they were able to find, and then filed the smaller folder in with other unsolved crimes. The man had even shaken her hand, and then that was the last time it was ever mentioned.

But today, Haruka had come home to a silent house. After a brief look around, she had first noticed a note lying on the coffee table. With an unexplainable sense of trepidation, Haruka had walked forward and picked the piece of stationary to read the words written on it.

_My dearest Haruka,_

_I simply can't live like this any longer. It haunts me every day. Even you, my love, cannot make the pain I feel go away. You, I know, will find it difficult to live after this day is through as well. But I trust you will find reason, after all is said and done._

_Even as the sea answers the call of its heart, waves cresting wildly in the wind, so to it must meet its end, and crash upon the shore._

_I shall miss you, my love. Your smile will be what keeps me from despair, even as I walk through the fires of hell._

_All my love to you for always,_

_Michiru_

She had dropped the note, shock and disbelief holding her still long enough for her to watch the flimsy piece of paper flutter down to the floor. From there, it didn't take long for Haruka to find the trail of blood, leading out the door.

She didn't pause again until she got to her destination, stopping just before she splashed into the rushing brook. Ignoring her body's desperate cry for rest, she looked around frantically.

For a long moment, all she heard was an animal wailing into the night air. Then it struck her. That wail was a baby crying. Running toward the sound, she soon found a naked babe lying helplessly on its back, kept alive and warm only by the fire burning a safe distance away. Tears came to her midnight blue eyes as she noticed the soft, aquamarine tufts of hair atop the baby's head.

Then she jerked herself back from her reverie and looked wildly about. For a seemingly long time, she saw nothing. But then, there it was. Barely visible from around a small cluster of bushes, a motionless hand lay. Running forward, she began to see that the arm, then the body attacked did indeed belong to her beloved. Arm and hand both were covered with blood.

Dropping to her knees next to Michiru's unmoving form, Haruka could not do anything for a few moments. Then she noticed, ever so faintly, that Michiru's chest was still rising and falling beneath her nightgown, despite faltering now and t hen. She pulled her up to cradle her upper body in her lap, even as tears of resignation slipped down her cheeks. "Michiru? My love, please wake up..."

Stirring, Michiru groaned with pain as she came back to reality, her eyes opening slowly. "Haruka...?"

"I'm here, love." Haruka spoke tenderly, belying the raging emotions in her heart. Michiru was still for just long enough to scare Haruka. "Michiru! Don't leave me! I called an ambulance before I left, they'll be here soon..."

Ignoring her words, Michiru's gazed fixed to her's carefully. Lifting a bloody had slowly, she clasped her lover's hand as tightly as she could, even as blood still flowed from her wrists in a maddeningly slow manner, out onto Haruka's hand, then arm. "Take care of Nina, waga koi. She is all that I can leave behind in this world that has a chance of going untainted with sorrow..."

"No, no... Don't say that... we're going to raise her together, and-"

Michiru cut her off with a weak shake of her head as sirens could finally be heard making their way closer, but were still too far off to give any hope.

Drawing her gaze away from Haruka, she looked at a point just beyond her head. "Haruka...an angel... she's... perfect..."

Tears streaming down her face, Haruka bent over to press a kiss to her lips. "I hope Heaven's ready for an angel as beautiful as you..."

A faint smile formed on Michiru's lips, and remained there even as the siren's wails came to a halt a few yards away, and her body went limp.

Looking to the sky, Haruka didn't notice as the paramedics jumped from the ambulance, one headed toward the still crying baby and two coming to her and Michiru. Softly she whispered up to the sky, "Aishiteru, toutoi tenshi." Then all her strength finally left her, and she passed out.

Waga koi - my love

Aishiteru, toutoi tenshi - I love you, precious angel


	2. 1 Time Goes On

One year later...

Seiya was jogging along the sidewalk when he heard a basketball dribbling, then a violent slam into the rim. Looking up, he realized that he was in front of Haruka's house. He had been told earlier that day what today was (as if any one of them could forget), and that Haruka had insisted that everyone stay away from her today. Of course, Seiya was never on to listen to anything Haruka said, so he headed around the back to see her angrily dribbling the ball into the concrete.

"Hey, B-ball girl... What did that poor ball ever do to you?"

Spinning around at the sound of his voice, Haruka hurled the ball toward his head. He caught it easily with reflexes developed form years of fighting and his new hobby, American football. As he lowered it from in front of his face, he noticed Haruka's eyes shooting daggers in his direction.

Casually dribbling the ball and ignoring the look being thrown at him, he made a shot and watched in go through the net cleanly. He went after it, retrieving it and started dribbling it again before speaking once more. "So, how's Nina?"

Haruka's expression softened visibly at the mention of that name. "She's over at Usagi's... she agreed to throw her a little birthday party today... I just... couldn't find it in me to celebrate it..."

Seiya nodded his head in sympathetic understanding. "In time, Haruka... you'll begin to see Michiru in Nina, and you won't be able to tear yourself away from her for more than two seconds."

The blonde nodded at the words she knew to be the truth before easily stealing the ball from Seiya's hands, jumping up and just as easily dunked the ball through the hoop. Taking this as the challenge it was meant to be, Seiya dashed forward to grab the ball.

This went on for over an hour before both decided it was time to take a break. Of course, this didn't stop Haruka from teasing Seiya about how badly she had beaten him. He took it all in good nature. Chuckling, the blonde invited him inside, old rivalry seemingly forgotten for the time being, exchanged for a surprisingly comfortable camaraderie.

Haruka got them both a bottle of water as Seiya issued his own challenge. "You just beat me today because basketball is your game... you should come try playing football with me and a bunch of other guys at the park tomorrow."

The challenge was accepted, and Seiya spent the next half-hour or so explaining the general rules of football and the different ways to gain points. After this was done, the managed to find a football game on the television.

They only realized how late it was when Usagi dropped off a very sleepy Nina. Needless to say, she was surprised to see Seiya some to the door to help carry some of the things Nina had gotten up to the one-year-old's room.

Holding Nina, Haruka told Seiya how to get to Nina's room.

Usagi waited until he was gone before lifting an eyebrow at Haruka. "Well, this is uhm... certainly a surprise, to say the least!"

Haruka shrugged her shoulders as much as she could without disturbing Nina, who had fallen asleep in her arms. "We're still rivaling... just in a more organized fashion. And don't go telling anyone anything otherwise, Usagi. I know how your mind works."

Usagi giggled and gave a wink toward Haruka. "Oh, Haruka! The thought never entered my mind!" Then, waving goodbye, she went back to hop in the car with Mamoru, and the car left.

Shaking her head, Haruka turned and ascended the stairs up to Nina's room, only to find Seiya already turning down the sheets for the small girl. She set the girl down in the bed, only pulling off her sneakers before covering her up. Then she found and tucked a dark brown, plush teddy bear holding a big, red push heard beside her.

"She'll be upset if she wakes up and it isn't there..." Haruka paused her whispering as she rose from where she had been sitting on the edge of the bed. "Michiru was the same way..." Stopping there, she kissed the sleeping child on the forehead and left quietly, Seiya following close behind.

Out of safe hearing distance back downstairs, he settled a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "Want to talk about it?"

She looked at him warily for a few moments before slowly nodding her head. She didn't really know why... perhaps it was because Seiya was more likely to remain neutral on the subject than any of her other friends. It would be easier to talk to someone who wouldn't get so emotional.

"I gave that teddy bear to Michiru on Valentine's Day last year... and, well... I had planned on asking her to marry me for some time, I just hadn't planned on doing it then. But, it just came out over dinner..."

Seiya nodded a little as they both settled down to sit in the living room on the couch. He made a point not to interrupt Haruka as she rambled on, letting everything out.

"We went a few days later to pick out a ring... The guy at the shop was really helpful... that is, until he found out I was a woman..."

The disgust on Seiya's face revealed that he hadn't heard this part of the story before. None of the Kou brothers had attended the trial, feeling that their star status would just draw unwanted attention to the proceedings.

"He started hitting on Michiru, and we left soon afterwards. A couple weeks later, I came home to find Michiru crying; she told me about it, and told me she was pregnant... The jury at the trial was just... unbelievably ignorant." Haruka fairly growled the last two words, angry at the memory. "There was DNA evidence right before them, and they didn't care one bit what it would do to Michiru..."

Wisely, Seiya continued to remain silent as Haruka continued to vent off her anger, amongst the many other emotions that she was so used to keeping bottled up inside herself.

"A few days later, I couldn't stand it anymore... I killed him. With my bare hands. And I still don't regret it... I was arrested, of course, just because I had the most prominent reason for wanting to kill him. They didn't keep me for too long just based on probable cause, though... the guy had apparently ruffled more than just a few feathers in his life... I hadn't been as careful as I should have been about leaving evidence... the police chief called me into his office, and I watched him destroy every bit of what they had been able to find. Nothing was ever said about it again." Realizing she had been clenching her hands into fists so tightly that a few nails had dug in and began to make her bleed, Haruka slowly relaxed her hands. She had no reaction as she watched drops of blood slowly form, then as they rolled down the palm of her hand once they had become heavy. She only reacted when Seiya came over and began to take care of her hands.

"So, what happened after that?"

Watching him for a moment, she thought back to where she had left off, and then continued.

"The whole trial process had taken a few months... Michiru refused to go through with it again. So, we went on with our lives... or at least, we tried to. The more Michi showed, the more depressed she seemed to get. She stopped taking care of herself around the end of her seventh month, no matter how much I tried to cheer her up and get her to eat right..."

Seiya nodded his understanding of this fact as he finished bandaging her hands. "That explains why her body gave out while giving birth..."

A slow, sad, and weakened smile crossed Haruka's lips. She rose and went to a bookshelf, pulled down a silver scrapbook, and then walked back to Seiya. It was a thick book, with _Kai'ou Michiru _lettered neatly in aqua-colored calligraphy on the front. Opening the front cover, there was a picture of baby Michiru, bearing a striking resemblance to Nina. Opening further to about the middle, it was Michiru when she was round ten, next to a ticket to the circus. About three-fourths of the way through, Michiru was now about fifteen, movie tickets, concert tickets, and race tickets scattered among the photos. A few pages later, pictures featuring Haruka alongside the aqua-tressed beauty began appearing. Smiling wistfully, Haruka skipped ahead to the last few pages. These held pictures of a very pregnant Michiru, a then rare smile upon her lips. The last three to four pages held her obituaries and stories about her untimely death, taken from several newspapers, magazines, and other publications worldwide. Folded in the back was a piece of stationary. It was the note Haruka had found. She handed this to Seiya, and let him read.

As he did so, realization and inevitable horror showed upon his face. Looking up after finishing, words would not come for several minutes. When they finally did come, his shock was evident. "She... killed herself?!"

Nodding sadly, Haruka replaced the note and put the scrapbook aside. "No one else knows... except a few paramedics and a doctor. I couldn't let everyone that adored her know that her life had ended in that way... It was an end unsuiting to someone like her..."

Silence reigned in the room, save for a steady pounding of rain outside. After about five minutes, Haruka rose and went to the window. She stood staring out for a few minutes more before smirking faintly and looking back to the raven-headed male. "Looks like you're staying the night..."

Confused, Seiya went to look at the window as well. He saw that there was no way he could possibly walk home... Even without considering the late hour, it would be almost impossible for even Haruka to safely drive in this weather. Large hailstones were falling amidst the rain, some hitting the ground so hard that they shattered into tiny shards of ice.

"Come on, you can use one of the guestrooms."

Voicing no complaints, Seiya turned and followed Haruka up the stairs.


	3. 2 Thank Heaven for Little Angels

Author's Notes: Uhm... R&R o.o That's all I have. And I re-iterate, don't hate me! ; I'm really quite nice and a huge fan of the Haruka/Michiru relationship! ;

A few months had passed since Nina's birthday. Haruka had played a game of football with Seiya and did relatively well, though it was still obvious that it was definitely Seiya's game. But right now, sports were the last thing on her mind.

At the moment, Haruka was reading Nina a bedtime story, the small girl curled up in her lap as she slowly nodded off to sleep. She was enjoying a last night with her before she left on an Asian racing circuit that would keep her away for several months. Having kept herself out of the world of racing since learning of Michiru's pregnancy, it was definitely time to get back in.

After finishing the story, she looked down to find Nina completely asleep. She carefully tucked her in, kissed her forehead, and left the room, shutting the light off as she went. Closing the door behind her, she headed downstairs just in time to hear a knock on the door. She went to answer it, and at first, found no one there. Stepping out the door to investigate, she cast her gaze about to find out who it was that had knocked on the door and then seemingly fled.

"Surprise!"

Usagi, Mamoru, Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako, Hotaru, Taiki, Seiya, and Yaten were all out in her front yard. Chuckling, Haruka made her way down the front steps to join her friends. "What's this about?"

Laughing, Makoto dropped a party hat atop Haruka's head. "Well, since you're going to be gone on your birthday, we figured we'd give you your party early, and combine it with a goodbye party."

"But a quiet one, so we don't wake Nina," Ami said pointedly. She had obviously just gotten out of her evening classes at the pediatric college, because she was still wearing the nursing scrubs her school required.

Haruka nodded, and looked to all of her friends. They all had so obviously gone on with their lives. She was glad that she was finally putting hers back together.

The party lasted only a couple of hours. Usagi needed to rest, Ami had classes in the morning, Rei had to rise early to be able to care for the Hikawa Jinja before going to her recording, Makoto and Minako both had planes to catch in the morning, and Hotaru was staying with Usagi and Mamoru to help out during her break while Mamoru was at work. Yaten and Taiki were the last to leave, but only after getting Seiya's promise that he'd be back at their apartment before long.

He helped her carry in the gifts she had gotten. Usagi, Mamoru, and Hotaru had gotten her a gift certificate to a detail shop; Ami, Rei, and Makoto had pulled together and gotten her a new sound system for her car; Makoto had also given her a cook book she had recently published; Minako had given her a book of piano sheet music; but one gift was left outside - the brand new motorcycle the three brothers had given her. She had said that she'd make sure to use the gift certificate for it, receiving laughs from everyone.

After everything was put away and Haruka had checked on Nina, they both settled down with a can of soda to talk.

"So, besides the big races coming up, how's your life been in the past, oh... week?"

Grinning slightly, Haruka shook her head at Seiya. "Better, actually... I guess finally letting all of what I had bottled up made me realize that Nina really is my whole world. Michiru was right about that... without her, I wouldn't have reason to live."

Nodding his head in understanding, Seiya fell into one of his silences that were becoming habitual when he was around Haruka. He seemed to instinctively know when she just needed to talk to someone that wouldn't treat her like some poor bird with a broken wing.

"And... I'm finally letting go of Michiru... I know I'll never love another like I loved her, if I even love again. Holding onto her memory like I was only kept me from living my life... I can't do that if I want to give Nina the kind of life she deserves."

Seiya nodded his head again. Haruka was stronger than most others would have been had they been in her position. A lot of children would be the object of resentment from the one standing in her place. But she only saw the innocence of a child who was very much her mother's child.

"I know you can't perceive of it now, Haruka... but don't give up on love. There will come a time when you'll have to give it a second chance."

Haruka made no comment and simply took a drink of her soda. Seiya wisely let the subject drop and brought up another.

"Hey, guess who's going on tour with your racing circuit?"

"Hm... That's a hard guess... is it... the tooth fairy?"

Chuckling, Seiya shook his head. "No... But can you imagine Yaten in a tooth fairy costume?"

Haruka nearly spit out the soda she had just drank because she was laughing so hard. "May the powers that be keep such a think from ever happening!"

Grinning, Seiya kept the joke going. "I don't know... get him a pair of wings and a wand... he's certainly short enough to play the part!"

Haruka smirked before responding. "You're one to talk, little man." As she rose to throw away her empty soda can, she found herself being tackled to the ground.

Seiya took full advantage of the element of surprise, pinning down the taller of the two to the ground. "Little? Who are you calling little?"

Shock wore off, Haruka grinned and slipped easily from the hold and reversed it. "I'm calling you little, shorty."

Seiya struggled briefly before using leverage to get Haruka from on top of him. Using the same technique, he pinned her back to the ground. "Okay, I'm short. Doesn't mean I can't beat you!"

Haruka worked a few minutes at trying to get up, but to no avail. She finally went still after about five minutes of struggling. "Alright. You win. Let me up."

"Uh... no."

"What? Why?!"

"I still haven't figured out a punishment for you calling me little."

Giving an exasperated sigh, Haruka obligingly kept still. In her stillness, she became aware of how close Seiya's face was to her's out of the pure purpose of keeping her arms pinned above her head, and more importantly, away from doing him bodily harm.

Seiya seemed to become aware of this fact the same time she did, and did his best to ignore it while he tried to come up with a fitting punishment.

Haruka closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at his face, inches from her's. She had them closed for several moments before she felt a pair of lips pressing against her's. Her eyes jolted open immediately to look up at him in utter surprise. As he drew away, he seemed just as surprised as Haruka. With a smirk, she took advantage of him being off guard and shoved him away. She got to her feet first and turned to offer a hand to help him up. "Was that supposed to be my punishment?"

Seiya smirked and took her hand, getting up. "You know, most girls would have killed to be in your shoes just then."

"Well, I'm not most girls, and I get enough threats on my life out on the track. I don't need you adding to it." Still smirking, Haruka shoved Seiya playfully toward the door. "You'd better go before Taiki and Yaten decide to kill you."

Nodding, he took the hint and headed out the door with a small wave. "See ya, racer chick."

Shaking her head, she shut the door behind him. She took a couple of minutes to clean up after their goofing off before heading upstairs. She wanted to make sure she had packed everything for Nina so she would be ready to drop her off at the Hikawa Jinja in the morning before she left on the racing circuit that afternoon.


	4. 3 Payback's a

Haruka was milling through a crowd of concert-goers after a race earlier that day. At the moment, she was trying to get away from the crowd to avoid people congratulating her on her win that day. Right now the Three Lights were on an intermission, giving people more time to notice her going past. As she walked on, she noticed a foot come out to trip her and easily avoided it, spinning around to see who did it. She found herself surrounded by a bunch of guys she recognized from the race earlier that day... guys that didn't look too happy about being beaten.

One guy, who was decidedly the most sober-looking (though not by much), spoke first. "You know, girly, me and the guys were talking, and we decided we didn't like no girl beating us... 'Specially no lesbian."

Haruka's fists clenched at her sides, but determined not to fight a bunch of drunks, she tried to push her way out of the circle that they had formed around her. It didn't work too well.

"Hey, ain't you the girl whose girlfriend got raped then died later that year?" Another drunk made his voice heard, and all seemed to look more closely to see if he was right.

A third spoke, "Yeah! I think she is!"

Laughing, a fourth nudged yet another guy at his side. "I remember seeing that girl on the TV! She was a pretty little thing!"

Nodding drunkenly in agreement, another guy spoke up. "She was so pretty, I woulda went after her myself!"

That was the last straw. Haruka launched herself at that last guy, easily tackling him to the ground. In the next instant, her fist flew toward his face, and a small crunch was heard as his nose broke. Not stopping there, Haruka grabbed the front of his shirt and jerked him to his feet. As soon as he was up, her knee went into his groin. At this point, one would have expected his buddies to join in, but they were being held away by the people who had circled around the fight. She released the guy, expecting him to back off at that point. He didn't. After taking a moment to groan, his drunken state of stupidity seemed to take over again, and he rushed her. She stepped to the side and grabbed his wrist. Using mainly his momentum and weight more than her strength, there was a sickening 'pop' as his shoulder dislocated, followed by a crackling sound as she twisted and broke his wrist. All of this was performed without an ounce of emotion still lingering on her face.

Finally, security got through, closely followed by all the members of the Three Lights. One security officer busied himself with radioing the concert paramedics while the rest collected the remainder of the drunks.

One stayed to talk to Haruka. "Since you seem to be the only coherent one involved in this, mind telling me what happened?"

Looking over at the woman, Haruka lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "Nothing I could say could possibly justify this to you. Safe to say, he pushed it a little too far for my patience."

Taiki scowled faintly, seeming to understand what had occurred almost immediately. He wasn't all that close to Haruka, but he did know very few things would drive her to attacking someone who was obviously at such a huge disadvantage. "He said something about Michiru, didn't he?"

Haruka nodded a bit.

The security guard's hard expression softened slightly. "Yeah. I remember you from the news..." Nodding, she turned to the rest of the guards. "Alright, boys, let's get these drunks out of here!"

As they left with the rest of the trouble-started in tow, she turned to look back at Haruka with a smirk. "My son would never forgive me if I took you in, Ms. Ten'ou, but see to it that this never happens again."

Haruka nodded, a little dazed at how easily the woman was letting her off.

"Say... would you mind paying him a visit? It'd be great for him, he's been a little down lately."

"Yeah, sure," Haruka said with a small laugh. "It's the least I can do."

The woman pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down her address. "Tomorrow around noon?"

Agreeing, Haruka took and pocketed the piece of paper. The woman left.

Intermission over, the Three Lights headed back to the stage. Haruka left to go back to her hotel, any desire to celebrate gone deflated from the rather rude reminder of the reason she had left the world of racing in the first place.

The next day, Seiya went with Haruka to the security guard's house. She rang the doorbell, and stood on the porch waiting for someone to answer. The woman did quickly, and smiled as she saw who it was.

"Great, you came!" Looking over to Seiya, her smile turned into a smirk. "I'd be wary of entering this house if I were you... I have a teenage daughter who has a thing for your band."

"Uh... Haruka? Mind if I come back later to get you, or..."

Chuckling, Haruka shoved him in before her as the woman stepped aside to let them in. "No way, little man. You owe me. Besides... far be it from me to deprive a girl from meeting a member of her favorite band!"

Grumbling something about life being unfair, Seiya walked inside, though unwillingly.

Both were shown how American this family was the further they walked into the house.

The woman sat them down in the living room, then went to the front of the hallway. "Simon! You have a guest!"

"Just a minute, Mom!" A voice came down the hall, sounding rather young.

As they waited, a pretty blonde, about seventeen, came down the hall. Chatting on the phone, she seemed oblivious to the two visitors and passed on by. Seiya breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't so lucky the second time. She came back, and nearly dropped the phone and the glass of juice she had gotten. "Kou Seiya!" The shock wore of, and Seiya groaned as the girl began telling whoever was on the other end to get the rest of 'the girls' to her house as quickly as possible. Seiya made to get up and slip away, but Haruka grabbed his belt and pulled him back down.

As this went on, a young child, a boy about ten years old, wheeled his wheelchair down the hall, then froze in amazement. "Wow! Ten'ou Haruka!"

Grinning easily, she rose from the couch and walked over to him. "Heard you wanted to meet me..."

The boy nodded his head. "You're the greatest! You never lose or nothing!"

"Well... I wouldn't say that. My friend over there beat me in football the other day."

"I bet if you raced him, you'd beat him by a mile!"

Haruka grinned and looked back at a now slightly grumpy Seiya and gave a teasing wink. "True."

"Hey! Could I ride in your racecar?"

"Well, that's up to your mom."

"Mom?" The kid looked to his mother, who had come back into the room and stood close by with a small smile on her lips. "Pleeeeeease?!"

The woman grinned, laughing faintly. "As long as Ms. Ten'ou promises not to go as fast as she does in her races... it's alright with me."

"Cool! Let's go!" The boy headed out the door quickly, as if he expected his mom would change his mind if he didn't get out of there fast enough.

Smiling, Haruka looked to the woman. "I'll take it easy, I promise." She then headed out the door after the boy.

A couple hours later, they returned. The boy carried with him several autographed pictures of other racers for his friends. None were of the guys from the night before.

They went into the house, only to find the living room full of girls.

As soon as he noticed Haruka standing in the doorway looking ultimately amused, Seiya jumped up from the couch, where he was surrounded by girls, and made his way to Haruka.

"You've got to help me! I want to convince these girls I have a girlfriend," Seiya whispered urgently.

"So? Make up some girl."

"You don't understand, Haruka... they insisted I name someone, and.. I don't know what came over me, but your name came out."

"What?! You're nuts!"

"Please, Haruka? I can't have it going about that I lied to a bunch of teenage girls."

Looking over to find the girls watching expectantly, Haruka growled out her next words in a whisper. "You are going to owe me big time, buddy." With that, she bent down to close the few inches of difference in their height and pressed her lips to Seiya's.

He surprised her by snaking an arm about her waist, pulling her closer, and then slipping his tongue into her mouth.

She almost shoved him away, but let the charade go on. In retaliation, she pinched his butt. That made him jump and pulled away, glaring. She only smirked and left him to go talk briefly with the mom about inviting her family and a bunch of Simon's friends to her last race in the area before they went elsewhere.

When she walked back to Seiya, slinging an arm over his shoulder as they walked out. To an outsider, it looked like a tender embrace. If someone saw Seiya's face, they would have seen him wincing from how tight she was squeezing.

"You do know that in all probability, this is going to be all over the news, don't you? 'The lesbian racer turns straight for famous idol'?"

Seiya nodded, still wincing in pain.

"Right. So, for payback. There's this guy down at the track, and it seems he has a thing for a certain member of the Three Lights..."

Seiya groaned as they climbed into the car and pulled away. He knew better than to protest, and only sat back and listen as Haruka continued to outline the details.


	5. 4 Return of Enmity

Author's Note: Oh, and if there's ever anything in the story that I forgot to translate, please let me know in a review and it should usually be corrected within 48 hours. R&R! -

Several days later, after the little arranged date and the circuit had moved on to a new city, Haruka sat at the desk in her hotel room working on a letter to Nina - one of many over the past couple of months she had been gone. She missed her terribly, but knew that she needed to work on continuing the life she loved or she wouldn't be any kind of parent to Nina. She closed off the letter, put it in an addressed envelope, and then rose to take it down to the front desk on her way out. It was a couple of days before the next race, but they had gotten here early to allow the racers, road crew for the racers and the band, and the various other people required to keep things running smoothly time to rest. She grabbed the matching jacket to the dress pants she wore and slipped on her shoes next to the door. After making sure she had her room key, she headed out - only to find Seiya poised to knock on her door. He gave a sheepish grin as she rolled her eyes.

"I was wondering why my life was so quiet over the past couple of days... Must have been because you were busy with something, hm?" They both got aboard the elevator and headed down the several floors to the reception area.

Seiya gave a good-natured scowl. "I'm just glad that guy didn't pursue anything beyond that one date..."

Lifting an eyebrow, she stopped at the front desk to ask the man to make sure the letter was sent out. Then she picked up a copy of the local newspaper and thrust it at his chest. "I'm not sure that the one date was enough revenge for me." With that, she headed out the door.

Confused, Seiya unfolded the paper and caught the reason why she was so upset right on the front page. Unfortunately, it appeared that one of the girls had snapped a picture of the two of them kissing and sent it in to the newspaper. It had apparently flown to the associated press and made it in papers much further away than that one town. Then listed in the sidebar were mentions of stories on various other pages in the entertainment section about the same subject. He folded the paper back up and set it back down on the counter.

"Lover's spat?"

Seiya's attention was drawn toward the man standing there, and he scowled. "Don't believe everything you read."

The man chuckled and shook his head before moving down the counter to help someone else. "Of course, sir."

Seiya shook his head before taking off after Haruka. He caught up with her heading down the sidewalk to explore the city a little. She gave him a slightly disdainful look, lifting an eyebrow. "Are you sure we should be hanging out with each other this much? It's only going to encourage people into thinking that the papers are right."

"Since when do you care about what other people say? Especially the press..."

Haruka shook her head, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her pants. "I don't care what they say so much as being constantly stopped and asked by people why I decided to start dating guys."

Seiya chuckled and shook his head as they came upon a small outdoor cafe and seemed to quietly decide without discussion to stop there for lunch before continuing on. "Hey, at least they didn't get any information about that date you had me go on... Then it would have been stories about the idol cheating on the racer that had changed her dating habits for him, and people would be looking at you like they felt sorry for you."

Then a waitress showed up and quickly took their orders before heading off to tell the cook of them and then assist someone else.

"True. I got enough of that after Michiru died." Haruka shook her head and gave a small sigh. "Seiya, when did this all happen? We used to constantly be at each other's throats, always wishing plague and pestilence on one another... and now there's pictures of us kissing plastered all over newspapers."

He chuckled and shook his head, taking a drink of the glass of soda that had been settled before him. "I've actually thought about that myself... minus the whole thing on newspapers. I quit paying attention to the media long ago. I could tell you why I think it happened... but I don't think you'd like my analysis very much."

"Try me. I'm willing to consider anything to be believable at this point..."

"I think it all happened after Michiru died... she seemed to be the main source of everything between us. Especially with how we met that day in her dressing room. The whole thing with Usagi kind of added fuel to the fire, of course... but it wasn't the main reason."

Haruka let out another long sigh, settling back into a more relaxing position in her chair. "Maybe."

Seiya lifted his shoulders in a shrug as their food was set before them. "Hey, it's just one theory. It doesn't mean that it's the right one. To tell the truth, I didn't put too much effort into figuring it out. I don't like analyzing things... it takes all the enjoyment out of it."

She lifted an eyebrow over at him, wondering whether to be more disturbed over the fact that he was so comfortable with their new friendship and what everyone thought about them, or the fact that he had come to the conclusion that Michiru was the source of the enmity that had existed between them since the day they had met. Seiya didn't notice her skeptic look as he was busily working on the hamburger he had ordered, and Haruka couldn't help but be amazed once again at how different they were. It was as easy to figure out as looking at their favorite foods that were settled before them - he had ordered a hamburger and fries, and she had a salad. But, she decided not to analyze it all at the moment. To tell the truth, she was glad not to have the extra stress of quarreling with him throughout this entire tour. She wasn't all that happy about the stories running rampant in the media, but hopefully that would all die down soon if people saw them and saw that they acted nothing like a couple. That all settled in her mind, she started in on her lunch as well and for the next few minutes, they ate in companionable silence. After they finished, they both paid for their own meal, then rose and headed off to find something to do.

Hours later, after visiting some of the local landmarks, they had almost inevitably ended up in a music store. Seiya was absorbed in strumming experimentally on a plugged-in electric guitar while Haruka had settled herself before one of the grand pianos they had on prominent display. With a vague grin, Seiya picked up the guitar and traveled over next to the piano, glad that the cord was long enough to allow it. He started in on a song, and watched as Haruka just noticed he was there and gave a small grin and immediately started following along. Just as easily and quickly as his fingers flew over the strings, her fingers danced over the piano keys. One of the store clerks gave them a vaguely amazed look, then with a shy grin, headed over to a drum set and listened for a moment before easily picking up and adding a beat to the music they were creating. The other three clerks looked amused as their shy friend played along with the music, but went along with it all with an easy attitude. Two of them set about quickly hooking up sound equipment to amplify the music they were creating while the other went to open wide both of the doors that led into the store. It wasn't long before a crowd had amassed to listen in such a group that it spilled out onto the sidewalk as they flowed easily from one song to the other, taking turns to pick which one it would be, just to see if the others could follow.

Needless to say, the shop did a roaring business that day. The clerk at the drums often had to leave the drums to assist the other three in their sales. By closing time, each had collected enough commission for the day to outweigh what they had made in their entire time there. They weren't even bothered by letting the doors and shop stay open a bit longer to let the two continue to play. When they finally stopped, there was an uproarious bit of applause from the crowd that remained. Seiya grinned and gave a bit of a showboating bow and a wave. Haruka was a bit embarrassed by it all, as she had never really played that sort of music before, and especially not in accompaniment with anything but Michiru's violin. That thought only served to pull forward several memories that washed away the emotions that had come with being able to play with someone once more.

As people quickly noted who Seiya was and he was trapped into signing several autographs, Haruka managed to slip out unnoticed and head back to the hotel. She was a good half hour into the forty-five minute walk before Seiya came running up behind her, out of breath as he clamped a hand on her shoulder. She stopped and allowed him to catch his breath, looking down at him with the same vague disdain that had become so habitual for so long. "You really shouldn't stop so suddenly after running that much." He scowled a bit up at her, not quite noticing her expression yet. "Tell me, was it painful for you to have to leave behind so many adoring fans like that?"

Finally catching her mood, Seiya straightened and looked at her with a bewildered expression, his hand still on her shoulder. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." She reached up and took his hand off her shoulder. "Maybe I'm just coming back to my senses for the first time since that basketball game. I guess I lost them at some point while I was working at getting my life back together, but they're back in full now."

"What are you talking about? I can't help it if people recognize me for what I do... and you know why I do it too... I'm not here on this planet performing with Taiki and Yaten just for the fame. You know we're looking for Kakyuu-hime."

"Yeah, I remember that. But I also just remembered that I don't really like you, and even more that I really don't like being in the news as much as I have been recently. Once they run out of fuel to add to the fire about us, they'll start dragging up old stories. That may not be that bad for you, but you know what stories they have on file about me. That's the last thing I need right now, just like your supposed friendship. So let's just go back to the way things were, okay? I liked it better that way." With that, she turned and walked calmly away, leaving a bewildered Seiya behind.


	6. 5 Renewed Friendship, Tragedy

Over a month later, Seiya stood in the crowd and watched as the awards were given at the end of the racing circuit, the result of all the points they had collected with each race. A couple months ago, he had thought that he would feel happy for Haruka, knowing that she would be standing in that winner's circle at the end of it all. But he couldn't help but feel put off by how she had been treating him, and even a bit angry at still not knowing what had caused the return of all this hatred. As Haruka was handed the trophy, Seiya went off to join his two brothers as they prepared for their final performance on the tour.

Taiki looked up from the guitar he was toying with, giving a small grin toward his raven-tressed brother. "Always knew she'd be getting that trophy."

"Yeah."

"Hey, what's wrong with the two of you recently? For a while there you were almost inseparable, and then all of a sudden, you were shooting each other death glares again." He tilted his head to the side with a teasing grin. "Have a little lover's spat?"

Seiya almost growled over at him, causing Taiki to laugh. "Take it easy!"

Yaten soon joined the two of them, tossing a copy of the local paper's entertainment section on top of a nearby table. "I'd say that might have something to do with it."

The two darker-headed brothers looked down to the paper, scowling immediately as they saw the same headlines from over a year ago staring back up at them. Apparently, old news had become new again, and they were dredging up everything about Michiru's death and the murder that had never been brought to trial, finding some nonsense way to connect it all with the recent events with Seiya and Haruka. Seiya grabbed the thing and tossed it into the nearest trash bin. "Ridiculous piece of trash... They may as well quit being a newspaper and be a tabloid."

Yaten lifted an eyebrow at him before shrugging. "I can't really say that this return of old ways between you and Haruka is a bad thing. I mean, you finally gave up on Usagi after she and Mamoru married... It's just less that you'll have to let go of when we finally leave this planet. I can't understand why you bother with connecting with anyone in the first place. You know it's going to end as soon as we find Kakyuu-hime."

Seiya glared and stalked over to his silver-tressed brother, glaring down at him. "Not everyone is as emotionally bereft as you, Yaten. Some of us actually have feelings and have a need to connect with people on some other level than just complete disdain. Quit acting like you're the intelligent one and you're so much better than me just because I keep finding myself in pain over losing a friend... At times, with how you treat people, I wonder how you can even consider anyone to be connected with you, much less someone like me, who needs human contact, to be your brother, or someone like Taiki, who expresses his emotions in poetry. Just because you lack the capacity to actually care, doesn't mean you have to look down on those of us who actually do!" With that, he turned and headed out the door, but froze briefly as Yaten made his retort

"You do realize that Haruka is almost exactly the same way as me when it comes to that sort of thing, don't you? She has her friends, and she has the people she cares about... but as soon as someone begins to get close to her, she pushes them away. She's a loner, Seiya, even more of one since Michiru died. She's pushing you away because you threatened that status. She likes not having to be too attached to anyone but Nina, the same way she was with Michiru. She's going to stay that way, and I'm not going to start changing my ways and start letting other people get close to me that I'll just have to eventually leave behind. I'd rather save myself that discomfort, thank you very much. Besides," he paused briefly in his calm response to make sure Seiya actually turned to look at him to get the full impact of his next words. "I don't think I'm the person you're really mad at and wanted to say those things to."

Seiya scowled, but realized the truth in his words as he headed out the door.

"Be back in fifteen minutes, Seiya! We still have a performance to put on."

Seiya gave a small wave to let Taiki know that he had heard him, but didn't slow his pace back outside to where people were still milling about and discussing those who had received awards that day for their performances in the races over the past few months. Trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible, Seiya scanned his blue eyes over the crowd until he caught sight of the familiar head of blond hair making its way away from the crowd of people and toward the parking lot. Scowling again, Seiya hopped down from the makeshift stage on which he had been standing and quickly made his way in the same direction. He managed to catch Haruka just as she was unlocking the driver side door after putting the trophy safely into the trunk. He caught hold of her shirt and slammed her up against the nearby fence that separated the parking lot from a large field. "You're not leaving here until I know exactly what is that made you throw up that wall around yourself again, Haruka." Haruka made a move to shove him away, but that only made him pin her even harder against the chain-link fence. "I sort of thought our friendship was a good thing, even with all the crap they were blasting about in the media. And don't even try to pass that off as the reason that you walked out on our friendship, because I know it's a lie. I'm tired of you pretending that you don't need anyone else in your life. You've never let anyone but Michiru get that close to you. Even Nina will never get to know you that way because you have obligations to her as a parent. And I know you'd give anything to have Michiru back, we all would! We all miss her, Haruka, you aren't the only one. But she's not coming back!"

Seiya was wholly unprepared for the fist that made contact with his jaw a moment later and made him release her abruptly. Unwilling to give up, but knowing words just weren't getting through to her, Seiya retaliated and tackled her to the ground, the car keys flying loose from her hand to get lost underneath the car. This went on for several minutes, rolling on the pavement and every now and then someone managed to elbow the other in the side until finally Haruka won out and pinned him forcefully to the ground. "You want to know why?!"

His glower faded slightly as he let his head fall back on the pavement, only to realize that at this point, his messed hair provided very little cushioning. "Ow!" He lifted his head back up to rub the back of it. "Yes."

Instead of responding, Haruka released him and got up and moved away to retrieve her keys. She found them a moment later, then stood straight as she watched Seiya climbing to his feet. "I walked out that day because I had never played along with someone like that besides Michiru. I've never been able to connect musically with anyone but her, even though she had this... way about her that let anyone be convinced that they could play even half as beautifully as she did." Haruka paused briefly to smirk and shake her head, looking down at the ground. "I think that's a big part of the reason I started off hating you... Because Michiru joined you in concert that night, it was sort of like she was sharing part of herself with every person that she played with..." She stopped again to lift her gaze back up, this time to point it at the sky. "It sort of scared me more than made me jealous. I don't know why... I suppose it was because I always thought that she was too good for me... I never could believe that she passed up on being with all these other people, and just settled for someone like me who was doing her best to escape her fate, to get away from everything that might be able to hurt her. In her, I found this peace that made me feel like that all that hurt I was trying to avoid simply didn't exist... Then the night she died, I found out it did..." She smirked once more before lowering her gaze back to meet with his. He was faintly surprised to see tears threatening in those midnight blue orbs. "You want to know why I ran away? It's because I was afraid of being hurt again." With that, she turned and unlocked the car, got in, started the engine, and drove away.

Seiya was still standing in what could only be described as shock when Taiki came running up to find him. His eyes widened when he saw his brother's disheveled state. "Have a good heart-to-heart?" He smirked faintly before throwing an arm around the raven-tressed man's shoulders. "Don't answer that. Come on, Yaten's trying to keep the audience entertained until I found you... That is," he paused, looking down at his expression, "if you feel that you're up to it."

Seiya finally shook himself free of the shock and gave a small nod of his head. "Of course."

Taiki grinned. "Good. But let's get you cleaned up first. The way you look right now, the audience might run away in fear."

Seiya offered a small grin up to his brother for all his efforts to cheer him up as they headed toward the stage. "Nah. I think the girls will be too busy staring at Yaten to even notice me up there."

Taiki chuckled and shook his head. "True." With that, the two disappeared backstage to get Seiya washed up and into a new set of clothes, then went out to perform.

When they got back to the hotel late that night, Seiya watched his brothers get off on one floor, then rode the elevator up the extra two floors before walking off. He went down toward the end of the hall and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he knocked once more. After a few minutes more of waiting, he was about to knock again when a bellboy caught his attention. "Are you looking for Ms. Ten'ou?"

Seiya gave a brief nod of his head toward the boy.

"Well, she got back here a few hours ago and checked out early."

He thanked him before heading back to the elevator. It wasn't like Haruka to run away like that. It was then that he saw Yaten headed toward him. "She's gone, right?"

Bewildered, Seiya nodded. "How did you know?"

"She must have got the same message we did. Tokyo was attacked earlier today." The two ran the rest of the way to the elevator and got on as Yaten continued. "The senshi were able to fight them off, but Usagi and Hotaru were pretty badly hurt." They got off the elevator and ran to their own room to help Taiki with the rest of the packing. They rushed in silence to finish. They went to the ground floor and as Taiki and Seiya took the luggage out to meet a cab and put it in, Yaten checked them out. They were able to make it to the airport in time to catch the next flight to Tokyo.

"I'm just glad that we're not half a day away and this flight will only last a couple hours..."

Seiya nodded in agreement with Taiki, gazing out the window. "I wonder what made her leave without even trying to leave us a message..."

"Well... from what I gathered from the letter we were left, Hotaru was hurt really badly to the point where she's in the hospital. Usagi is too, but that's because Mamoru made her check in to make sure that there's nothing wrong with the baby..." Yaten explained, pulling out the note to look at it once again. "Oh... no wonder they had lasting injuries... they were attacked before they had a chance to transform."

"Oh, man... This is the worst time for enemies to show up... not when they're getting to go on with their lives after Galaxia..." Seiya sighed, but settled back in his seat to at least attempt to rest while still on the plane, his brothers following suit. Once they landed, they knew they'd be in a mad rush once again to get to the Tokyo hospital and would probably be there for a long time.


	7. 6 Endless Tears

Once back in Tokyo, the three brothers got a cab and headed straight to the hospital, stopping only briefly on their way there to get rid of their luggage at their apartment. Once they were back in the cab, Seiya forced a grin and looked at Yaten, who was seated in the front seat. "Aw, look who's actually worried about someone... it's almost like you care about them, Yaten."

Yaten scowled a little. "It's senshi business."

Taiki chuckled faintly, shaking his head. "Ah, so the tough exterior can be broken. Imagine that. Underneath all that annoying loftiness and desire to push everyone away, there's nothing but a big softy inside." That comment procured a glare from the direction of the front passenger seat, but before he could respond, they stopped at the hospital. Yaten quickly paid the driver as they scrambled from the car and headed into the hospital. It took just a moment to find out where Hotaru was, and they soon got to that floor. There they found Mamoru, Usagi, Rei, and even Setsuna seated in that floor's waiting room.

When they were spotted, Usagi rose and drew Seiya into a deep hug as Taiki and Yaten talked to the others to get an update on what had happened.

"Hey, Odango... aren't you supposed to be in your own hospital room getting looked at?"

Usagi smiled weakly at the nickname. "No... They released me when they found out nothing was wrong... We're still waiting for the verdict on Hotaru though...she was hurt pretty badly... she never even got to transform."

Seiya nodded, releasing Usagi to let her go back to Mamoru's side, looking over the group gathered there. "Hey... where's Haruka, Makoto, and Minako?"

The inner senshi assembled here exchanged glances, each sort of bewildered.

"Haruka didn't tell you?"

Seiya shook his head at Setsuna as Taiki spoke. "She was gone before we even got back to the hotel. Why, what's going on...?"

All was silent except for the bustling of nurses to and fro between rooms around them.

Mamoru cleared his throat a bit before answering. "Well, Nina was with us when it happened...."

Seiya paled and took off running as Rei called off the floor that held the pediatric ward at his retreating back. He soon found his way for the floor, and found Makoto and Minako on either side of Haruka, who sat with her head in her hands. He slowed down as he approached, almost afraid of what he would hear. Makoto was the first to notice and managed a weak smile. "So you guys finally made it..."

Haruka looked up, causing Seiya to stop in his tracks to see how much she had obviously cried over the past few hours. She gazed blankly at him for a few moments before lowering her head once more.

"What's going on...?"

It seemed a casual question, but they all knew what he meant. Minako answered. "Ami's in there with a few more doctors... no one else is allowed in. They almost didn't let Ami help, but finally let her because most of the pediatric staff is busy elsewhere."

They all froze, Haruka looked up again, as they saw a doctor emerge from behind the closed door. He dashed off, only to return a few moments later with another doctor and they both disappeared into the room once again. Haruka dropped her head once more, almost as if it were too heavy to hold up at this point. Makoto rose and took Seiya by the arm, leading him down the hall, out of safe hearing distance. "The truth is..." she sighed, shaking her head, "it doesn't look good at this point. She received the same blast that Hotaru did, and Hotaru barely survived... it's amazing that Nina has had the strength to hold on this long, to tell the truth."

Seiya gave a sad nod and the two turned to head back, stopping a few feet away as they saw Ami emerge from the room. She walked over and stood before Haruka who seemed reluctant to look up once again. Ami didn't smile, but a tear finally made its way down her cheek. "Haruka, I'm so sorry..."

Minako's mouth froze in an O of horror as Haruka rose to her feet. "Thank you, Ami..." With that, she turned and walked away without so much as a glance back at her friends.

Makoto made to follow her, but Seiya stopped her with a small shake of his head. "She needs some time alone."

It was then that their friends who had been in the waiting room below emerged from the elevator. Usagi dashed toward them, grinning. "Hotaru's going to be fine!" Her smile faded as the others caught up and they all seemed to notice the tears lingering in Makoto, Minako, and Ami's eyes, and the absence of Haruka.

Rei looked horror-struck. "No..."

Usagi's blue eyes filled with tears and she was wrapped tightly in Mamoru's arms. Ami finally had to sit down, and Taiki went forward and no one said anything as he sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her. Makoto went back to hold onto Minako, and Rei found herself clinging to a faintly surprised Yaten. Seiya just stood there for a few long moments, for once truly not knowing what to do.

It had seemed easy enough to become Haruka's friend and then help her dig herself out of the hole she had gotten herself into, and it was even easy to fight with her to get her friendship back... but now, it seemed as if there were nothing at all that he could do. Setsuna came over and placed a light hand on Seiya's shoulder. When he looked up at her, she gave a small gesture to follow her. They soon were in an elevator by themselves, headed back down to the ground floor. "Seiya, you have to go after her. We really can't afford even the chance of losing another senshi..."

Seiya gave an understanding nod of his head, a motion that belied the tempo at which his heart had just started racing. Haruka wouldn't try such a thing... would she? He glanced at the numbers indicating the floor that went at a painfully slow pace. "Why can't these things go faster..."

Setsuna gave a small smile and put her hand on his shoulder once more to prevent him from leaving right away when they reached the bottom floor. "I can't say for sure that she'll try something like that, Seiya. I thought I had a good idea of her strength, but this is the sort of thing that would have pushed me to do something drastic - the loss of someone so close to me. It's a miracle that Haruka went on for so long after Michiru's death, and I know it was because of Nina... and now, well...." They reached the ground floor and the doors slid open. She gave a small sigh. "You'll know where to look for her." Setsuna released his shoulder and he gave a nod before taking off running to look for a cab outside, knowing he couldn't possibly run the distance to her house and still be of much use.

He cursed as he saw none, which wasn't surprising, given the very early hour. With no other choice, he took off in a run.

"Seiya!"

He stopped and saw Setsuna standing next to a motorcycle with a small grin. "She left it behind." He ran back as she tossed him the keys. As he got on, an eyebrow lifted at her. She gave a small, knowing smile. "Well, let's just say I know her well enough to have taken her keys from her..." Seiya nodded before starting the motorcycle, pulling on the helmet, and then speeding away in the direction of Haruka's house. Once the house was in sight, he didn't even bother to stop and instead pulled off the road, heading into the woods behind her house. After some distance, it became impossible to navigate through the trees so he turned the motorcycle off and jumped off, then pulled out the key before taking off in a run.

He himself was unsure of what Haruka would do when made to suffer so much irreversible pain. He knew that she had seen Michiru die before, but never before had she not been able to follow her. Never before had there not been a glimmer of hope that they couldn't come back together. But wherever Michiru went, Haruka had always done her best to follow. Then when Nina had come along, she couldn't and then struggled to work at overcoming what must have been an almost unbearable pain, and at the same time making sure Nina grew up happy. Now that she had lost Nina as well... Seiya knew that to her, to her usual way of thinking that she would prefer to be a loner, it would seem that she no longer has something to hang around for. But he hoped and prayed as he ran that he was wrong.


	8. 7 End of Fears

Seiya ran. His own steps were unsure and he had to be careful, watching where he was going with the threat of becoming lost a very real one. He wasn't very familiar with these woods, but that didn't stop him from running as fast as he possibly could as his blue eyes darted about, looking for any sign of Haruka as two sides of his mind warred with each other about what he might find.

No.

Haruka wouldn't so this. She just wouldn't. She had too much strength, and had definitely withstood enough pain in her life to know that she could endure this.

Right?

But Haruka had also endured more pain in her life than anyone should have had to by her age. She was only twenty, and she had already lost the person she loved more than anything, and then the child she had come to accept and see as her own. That was piled on top of all the worries, physical pain, and the stress from being a senshi. It was more than any normal person should have to endure.

No.

But Haruka was far from normal, far from ordinary. First off, she was a senshi. That in itself gave a certain amount of strength to be able to deal with pain. The training a senshi must go through, especially the extra lengths the outer senshi went to make sure they were stronger than the inner senshi. They held themselves as the protectors of the solar system, the first line of defense. As such, they had prepared themselves for that sort of pain, and prepared themselves for the possibility of heavy personal losses. According to the senshi, Haruka had taken her own life to find the talisman she held. That should mean she had enough strength to endure this.

Right?

But what if it didn't? All those times that Haruka had been prepared to die, she had died with the one she loved, and it must have pained her all this time not to have been able to follow Michiru. The longest they must have been separated in death is perhaps a few minutes, at the most an hour or so. Haruka had been made to endure this pain for far longer, and now a deeper pain was being heaped upon that. If it were him, he doubted he could have lasted this long. All that was keeping him going in the search for Kakyuu-hime was the thought that she was still alive somewhere.

No.

Haruka couldn't do this. She still had something to live for. She had to... She had to know that her friends would miss her dearly.

But was that enough? It might not be.

He came to a halt to catch his breath, looking around the forest in the slowly forming morning light. There was no sign to indicate that she was nearby. He cursed beneath his breath, then took off in a run once more.

Now his formally at war mind taunted him. Why did he truly care if Haruka lived or died? True, they had become friends over the past few months, despite a few fights and various differences to overcome. But he had lost friends before and had been able to move on and return to his life. Heaven knows that he had mourned when Michiru died. But he had survived, right? So other than trying to save a fellow senshi, what was making him be so determined to save her?

For that matter, why was he the one that Setsuna had sent to save her? Why hadn't she gone, or even send the inner senshi to find her. She had obviously known where she would be as much as he had, so she could have directed the inner senshi to teleport here. They would have had a much higher chance of getting there in time to stop her. So why him?

Then as cold water hit his ankles as he splashed into a brook that he hadn't noticed, reality sat in...

He loved her.

He stood frozen for several moments as the truth set in, and water splashed and flowed around his ankles. He fell to his knees, staring ahead in disbelief.

How had he let this happen? He had hated Haruka! It had taken such a huge effort for him to even go to try and cheer her up that day. It had taken even more effort to continue to go seeing her when he was still so wary of his decision to be her friend. So at what point had he stopped trying to hold off their friendship, and had instead fallen in love?

A bird chirped, announcing the beginning of a new day. Seiya shook himself back to the here and now, scrambling to his feet and looking around in the filtered sunlight. "Haruka?!" He left the brook, his pants pretty much soaked as he looked about, hoping against hope that he had been able to make it on time.

Then, from around a bush, he saw a hand. He ran forward and found Haruka lying on her back, eyes pointed toward the brightening sky, still as death.

He took a cautious step forward, and his voice shook. "Haruka?"

She was still.

Then she slowly turned her head and gave her best attempt at a smile before it faded away and she turned her gaze back to the sky. "The night Michiru died... I held her in my arms... and just before she died, she spoke of this angel that stood behind me, waiting to take her away..." She gave a wry smirk, her eyes closing against tears she could no longer cry. "I was hoping maybe that if I came here, that angel would come back and help me to understand why she had to die. Why Nina had to be taken away from me..."

Seiya let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, then walked forward to settled down beside her. "I don't think anyone could really answer either of those questions, Haruka. Fate holds what it will for everyone, good or bad. You of all people should know that."

"Yes. But always, when I had Michiru by my side, what the future held didn't scare me. She had this blind belief that whatever fate may hold in store, fate was beautiful." She gave a wry smirk. "I guess you could say I was jaded. I knew that fate could be cruel, and that my job as a senshi meant suffering in ways I wouldn't have been able to endure as an ordinary person. I guess that's why I ran from it for so long. But no matter what I thought might lie in store, I wasn't scared with her by my side... From the moment I read that note, I haven't stopped being scared. Scared for her life, at first... then always scared that I might not be able to do what was right for Nina, scared that some day because of an enemy, I wouldn't be able to take care of her... And now... I'm not scared any more. But I've also never felt so empty. Not even when Michiru died did I feel so empty. I had Nina to care for."

"I know I can't honestly say that I understand what you're going through, Haruka... but I do know that you still have too much left in life to feel so empty. You have all your friends, your career... and you're still young. There's no telling what the future may hold." He gave a small smirk. "Though, speaking of being scared... I had my own scare coming to find you."

Haruka opened her eyes and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Don't tell me you thought that I was coming out here to kill myself..."

"To tell the truth... I don't really know. The thought had never entered my mind until Setsuna put it there. I was content to just let you have some time to yourself."

She let out a long sigh, finally sitting up. "Setsuna knows me better than that. Or at least, she should."

"She didn't truly think you would, Haruka, but...frankly, I was scared too. You've had to put up with a lot more recently than you've ever had to put up with. I don't think I would have lasted this long."

"Don't underestimate yourself, Seiya." Haruka stood, brushing herself off. "The strength of your soul and heart will amaze you at times when expect them to fail." She looked over at him. "And... What happened to your pants?"

He glanced down, just recalling how they had gotten soaked. "Eh... I had a small accident on my way to find you... Anyway, I should head home and change and get some rest... Oh, and... Hotaru's going to be fine. Usagi came and told us just after you left." He reached into his pocket to pull out the keys and tossed them to her. "Here. I left it a while back because the trees got to dense for me to navigate." With that, he turned and headed off.

She came up behind him and slung her arm about his shoulders. "Come on... I can at least give you a ride home on my way back to the hospital..."

He looked up at her as they headed toward the way they had both come from. "Haruka, you should really get some rest yourself. You've been through a lot, and it must have been a while since you really got a good night's rest."

"Yeah, well... I've gone longer without sleep. Besides, there's still a lot for me to do. I have to do something to prevent the press from getting a hold of this at least for a while... That's going to be near impossible, but I can't deal with those people now..." She gave a long sigh, her eyes closing briefly. It was one of her rare signs of weakness. "Nina's going to be buried next to her mother..."

Seiya looked up at her with a sad expression. He was still amazed that someone could put up with this sort of thing, and still manage to be able to think of keeping the press away to minimize the stress on everyone involved.

He loved her more and more with every passing second.

He shook away that thought, deciding to tackle that issue later...after he had had some rest and all of this was over.

But would it ever actually end?


	9. 8 Tangled Webs

Two months had passed since Nina's funeral. Haruka had managed to keep the news away from the media for at least long enough to keep the funeral a small, quiet one. The weeks following the funeral had been bit of a frenzy for her. She had even had her number changed to keep from getting calls all the time from the media to find out how she was dealing with the death of Nina, the one link she had left to the world-famous violinist that she had so loved, and the fact that Nina had been attacked seemingly at the very moment she was receiving her trophy.

Her friends, for a large part of the time, knew to give her some time alone. Every once in a while, they would make sure to drop by and make sure she was as okay as it was possible for her to be. Thankfully, the racing season had ended and she could have time to grieve without worrying about what was happening to her career.

Seiya had made a point of keeping his distance, for several reasons. One of the larger reasons was that he knew he would be tempted to hang around much longer than she would be comfortable with at this point. He knew too well that when Haruka wanted to be left alone, it was what she got. Another big reason was that he was still unsure of the revelation he had come to as he had splashed into the cold water of that brook. Now he stood before the front door, debating whether he should have even came here, even now. He shook his head, then turned and headed down the small set of steps that led up to her front door. He froze when he heard the door open behind him, then turned around.

Haruka stood there, looking a bit less distinguished than he had grown so accustomed to, but definitely more comfortably dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a dark blue t-shirt. Seiya couldn't help a small smile at seeing her at what was apparently one of the few times she wasn't dressed to show off her strength and stead-fast demeanor. She braved a weak smile back at him. "Just like you to walk off and not even say hello..."

"Er, well... I wasn't sure if you were ready to put up with me again."

"I'm never ready to put up with you, Seiya. You seem to forget, you were the one who started this whole friendship thing." With that, she turned and headed back into the house, but she left the door standing open. Taking that as an invitation, he headed into the house and closed the door behind him. He shed the light jacket he had been wearing and hung that up on a hook on a coat rack that hung in the entrance before seeking Haruka out. He found her settled on the floor amongst several boxes - some full and taped closed, others open and empty, while some others were still only half full. Interspaced amongst all the boxes were piles of things - things he quickly recognized as Nina's.

Haruka tossed him a glance then gave a weak smile. "I kept stopping by her room and just sitting in there for hours... I have to get all of this put away or I'll go insane. It's just not going very fast because I keep stopping and looking at the stuff..."

He gave an understanding nod and went to join her on the floor, promptly helping to place things into boxes, every now and then pausing to get a sheet of newspaper to wrap something in. They worked in silence for over an hour, Haruka occasionally pausing to look down at something in her hand. Seiya pretended not to notice and just continued to work at putting things away and sealing the boxes as they became full. When the piles had dwindled down to nothing, he looked over to her and gave a small smile to see her holding the now slightly worn teddy bear holding the gigantic plush heart. Then he sealed up the final box, setting it off to the side with the others. "I think it's safe to keep that one thing out. Think you can manage to keep your sanity?"

She nodded her head before releasing a long sigh, looking about at where all the piles had just been an hour ago. "...Thank you, Seiya... I probably would have been sitting here going through all of this stuff for another week."

"Well, I couldn't very well leave you here to sort through it all by yourself..." He then paused, looking over his friend with a soft sigh. "You look as if you haven't slept or eaten in days, Haruka."

"Gee, thanks for that expert opinion. I was just completely unaware of that fact."

"Haruka..."

She sighed, leaning back against the chair she had sat in front of. "Don't say it. I got enough of that every time one of the girls or Mamoru stopped in by here. This past week is the first time I've actually managed to have time to myself. Someone's been by here every day..."

"I have to say something. It's kind of a duty of being a friend." He rose to his feet, then glanced about at all the boxes. "Tell you what. I'll put all these boxes down in the basement while you take a shower and change, and I'll take you out to dinner tonight."

Haruka rose to her feet, stretching slightly and managing a small smirk. "Why Seiya, are you asking me out on a date?"

He returned the smirk as he gazed over at her. "Why, do you want it to be a date?"

She stared at him for a few long moments before chuckling softly and shaking her head. "Very funny, Seiya." With that, she turned and headed up the stairs. It wasn't until he heard the shower start that he started moving once again.

"I wasn't exactly trying to be funny," he muttered to himself, but decided for now it was for the best that Haruka thought he had been. Then he set about moving the boxes downstairs into the basement, stacking them neatly amongst other boxes with labels stating their contents. He found a marker upstairs and took it down with him, labeling each of the boxes simply with the little girl's name. He gave a sad sigh, looking over the many boxes that must hold hundreds of memories for Haruka, all boxed up and out of sight. He shook his head and went back upstairs as he heard the shower stop. He stopped in the kitchen to wash his hands of the dust he had picked up off a few of the other boxes, and then put his slightly mussed hair back into its usual neat ponytail.

Not long after Haruka came back down the stairs looking more like her usual self in a pair of black slacks and a navy blue dress shirt. Her blond hair was still slightly damp from the shower. Seiya gave her a faint smile, and they left.

A few hours later they left the restaurant they had both agreed on - a place a bit more casual than either would have taken someone on a date to. Just in an effort to keep her away from her house, Seiya suggested they go for a walk in the park. Haruka gave him a small smirk as she looked to him. "Why Seiya, this is beginning to sound more and more like a date."

"Bah. You keep saying things like that Haruka and you'll make me think that's what you want this to be."

"Oh, right. I keep forgetting... You're in a band. Your kind of people tend to be a bit more conceited than what's normal."

"This coming from the world-class racer..."

"Yeah, well..." Haruka let the retort fade away as they settled down on a bench in front of the lake to watch the sun set without really checking the decision with the other person. It just seemed to be a silent agreement between the two.

As the sun slowly sank into the horizon, Seiya chanced a glance over at Haruka, whose gaze was focused out at the colors playing off the surface of the water. He gave a small sigh and looked back to the horizon. "Haruka... That day that you walked out of the music store... What was it that you were afraid of being hurt by? All that I was offering you was friendship."

She was silent for a few long moments as the sun neared the end of its descent, the colors playing off the light cloud cover in the west as darkness slowly set in from the east. "I don't really know, Seiya. It's just that... something told me to distance myself as far from you as I possibly could."

They both fell to silence as the sun finally disappeared with all its colors, and the remaining light in the sky faded away and lamps began lighting up along the park trail. Seiya turned to look up at Haruka. Unbidden, his hand crept up to lightly touch her cheek, which caused her to look at him with a curious expression. He brought his head closer to hers, and spoke softly. "I won't hurt you, Haruka..." Her eyes widened slightly before his lips met with hers softly, but she didn't pull away. The kiss lingered until he felt something cool hit his fingertips and pulled back to discover that a few tears had slipped from beneath Haruka's closed eyelids. He gave a sigh and quickly pulled away. "Sorry."

She was silent, looking away from him as starlight danced on the water. He rose and stood there for a moment before turning to look back at her. "Actually, no I'm not. I'm not in the least bit sorry for doing that. I realized something that night when I was looking for you. When I thought that I might lose you."

"Seiya, please..."

"No, I'm saying this. I've tortured myself over the past couple months to try to come up with some solution as to why I feel like this. Why I was so worried about you that night, and why I was the one that Setsuna sent to look for you, instead of someone else. But there's only one answer to it all, and I'm tired of fighting it, tired of trying to hide it away as if there were something wrong with it."

"Don't..."

"I love you, Haruka."

Her eyes fell shut, forcing more tears to cascade down her cheeks. He reached his right hand out and brushed away the tears from either cheek, lingering on her left cheek as he leaned down closer to her. He kissed her right cheek, and whispered softly, "Itsu ka anata tokime kasetai."

He pulled away and walked off to leave her alone in her thoughts. Both his hands were stuffed into the pockets of his jacket as he walked along, faintly dazed from what he had just said. He hadn't really decided that's what he felt before all of those words, but as soon as they did come out, he realized that it was quite possible that he had never spoken truer words. But he had to smile a little at the realization of what had just transgressed.

Kou Seiya was in love with Ten'ou Haruka.

Translation: Itsu ka anata tokime kasetai - Someday, I want to make your heart beat fast


	10. 9 She's Here

Several days passed in which no one heard anything from Haruka. Seiya hadn't told them what had occurred while he was with her, he had only told them that when they had parted that night, she had been a bit upset. They had agreed that maybe they should leave her alone for a little while. But when another month passed and they still didn't hear from her, they knew that it was time that they went and tried to cheer her up. Usagi, now very much into her ninth month of pregnancy, helped to get everyone together and they planned another little party for Haruka like they had done before she left on the racing circuit.

Once they all arrived at her house, minus Setsuna who was busy at the Gates, Hotaru went up to knock on the door, and then scurry back out to stand in the yard with the others. Several minutes passed, and no one answered. With a bewildered look at everyone else, she went and knocked once more, lingering in front of the door this time. More time passed before she looked back to the others. "Maybe she went out somewhere...?"

Just then, a car pulled up into the driveway and a tall woman climbed out, looking slightly bewildered before beaming a smile at the group that was assembled on the lawn. "Are you all interested in this house...?"

"Uhm, excuse me? Our friend lives here..."

The woman looked at Rei, her brow furrowed momentarily as if she were confused, but the smile came back a moment later. "Oh, you mean Ten'ou Haruka?"

They all nodded cautiously, not knowing if they particularly liked the constantly smiling woman, but much more certain that they didn't like where this conversation was heading. The woman walked around to the trunk of her car, opening it and pulling out a large sign. "Well, she moved out about two weeks ago. Didn't even give a forwarding address for us to send the sale money to. Just said to put it into a college fund for a Tomoe Hotaru. She was out of here as soon as the paperwork was all signed."

There was a stunned silence for a few long moments as the woman began putting the sign up in the front yard, oblivious to the havoc she had just started in the lives of the people lingering on the front lawn until Hotaru broke into tears. "No, no, no! Haruka wouldn't do that! She wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to us! She wouldn't!"

"Oh, dear..." The woman muttered, seemingly sincerely distressed at the scene as Makoto went over to Hotaru and sat down on the steps, pulling her into her lap. Hotaru collapsed against her and sobbed into the brown-haired woman's shoulder. All else on the lawn was silent as Makoto rocked back and forth in an attempt to be comforting to the younger girl. "Uhm, well..." The woman now appeared completely uncomfortable with the bomb of information she had unwittingly dropped. "I'm terribly sorry about all of this... if you need anything, or want any information on the sale of the house, don't hesitate to call me," she said as she handed over a business card to Mamoru, who seemed to be the most composed of the group at the time. The three brothers were now in a small circle talking to one another.

The woman turned to leave, seemingly as quickly as possible.

"Wait. We want to buy the house."

The woman spun around as did everyone else to look Yaten and his brothers. The woman looked stunned for a minute before shaking her head a little. "Are you sure? I mean, have you ever even been in the house?"

"Well, Seiya has, and that's enough. We're outgrowing putting up with each other in an apartment anyway," Taiki admitted with a small grin.

"Oh, well... wonderful!" The woman went to her car and pulled out a manila envelope, stuffed with papers. "Would you three like to start the paperwork on your own, or will you require some assistance with it?"

Yaten gave her a small smirk and took the envelope from her. "Just because we're stars doesn't mean we're idiots. We can handle it."

The woman blushed before giving a nod. "Well then... Uhm, my contact information is inside the envelope as well when you are prepared to finalize the sale... But I will warn you, there is a long line of customers waiting to come and see this house, so you might not want to linger too long in getting that all done."

"Right."

The woman gave a sheepish smile to everyone after Yaten's curt answer, then headed back to her car and was soon gone. The others simply looked at the three brothers, awaiting an explanation.

Taiki gave a small sigh. "Well, we can do something nice for the group every once in a while. We can only hope that Haruka will be back here some day, and she'll want to be in the place where she feels at home."

The group of people still standing gave a small smile, but tears still streamed down the cheeks of Hotaru. "But what about Haruka? It's not like her to disappear like this without telling someone where she was going, if not at least why she would do such a thing... She's been gone two weeks without any kind of explanation to anyone. It's not like her. She wouldn't do this!"

Makoto gave another hug to the distraught girl as she broke into tears once more. Usagi glanced up to find Seiya heading away from the group. "Seiya...?" He stopped as his voice was called, but didn't turn around. She went forward, laying her hand lightly upon his arm. "Seiya, what's wrong?"

"I feel that I owe all of you an apology."

Rei gave him a bewildered look. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I should apologize because... it's my fault that she left. She told me once that our friendship scared her, and I kept pursuing it anyway because I was too stubborn to see how much it was bothering her. Or if I did notice, I thought it would be better for her to be annoyed at me than to go on how she had been... So I apologize, to everyone." Seiya paused, turning to glance back at them, and then his gaze landed on Hotaru, whose attention was focused on him as well. "Especially to you, Hotaru."

Minako went forward as Usagi released his arm. She picked up his hand and looked up at him. He glanced to her, letting their eyes connect briefly before looking away. She gave a soft smile up at him, tilting her head to the side. "Don't you try to hide from me, Kou Seiya. You just handed me all of the answers in that one look. Just because I'm ditzy sometimes doesn't mean you can hide that from me."

He pulled his hand away. "You are ditzy, Minako. I don't think you know what you're talking about." With that, he turned and left, his brothers not long in following.

Minako watched him go for a moment before dashing forward and grasping his arm to stop him. At first, he appeared a bit angry, but she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. When she pulled away, there was a brief smile on his face before he glanced back to the others and then continued on his way. Minako came back with a small smile on her face.

"What did you say to him, Minako-chan?"

The blond goddess of love gave a small smile over to her tall best friend. "Something he should have already known." She turned her head to glance after the three brothers. "Haruka will come back when she'd ready to accept it. If not, when the time comes, he'll find her, and he had until they met again to figure out what to say to her. She can't run from it for forever."

"But... Minako... isn't it kind of cruel to say that she must be forced to accept Nina's death? I hope that she comes to terms with it eventually, yes... but that's not the sort of thing you can force a time limit on."

Minako looked to Mamoru. "Oh dear. I didn't really make myself clear... Ditzy me again!" She gave a small laugh, shaking her head. "No, of course no one should force her to accept such a thing before she's ready. But what Seiya can offer her will help her to accept that fact, given some time. But she has to accept what he has already offered her, and then accept that if she doesn't already, that in time she will return it."

"Uhm... Minako, you lost me. What are you talking about?"

Minako giggled, but looked up and allowed Ami to answer, who had just cleared her throat for just that purpose. "Really, Usagi, you're just as ditzy as Minako. I doubt she would have noticed if being who she was didn't allow her a certain amount of advantage in that department." She glanced over to Minako, who looked torn between being sheepish or proud. She then turned back to Usagi. "It's simple, silly. Seiya loves her... I just can't believe it took me this long to notice."

"Eh, don't feel bad Ami. You've been busy lately, and besides... You're more the bookish type anyway."

"Ah, Minako! Look who's talking! The Goddess of Love herself didn't notice it until a moment ago!"

"Uhm, well, you see..."

They two stopped as they heard Hotaru laughing. She smiled over at them, shaking her head. "You two are silly. But at least we know Haruka will come back to us someday, right?"

Makoto looked down at her and gave a soft smile along with a nod of her head. "Of course. She may be like the wind, but I don't think even the wind can escape love."

"Uh, minna..."

Everyone turned their attention to Usagi, who was now grasping the fence to help keep herself from falling to her knees.

Ami gave a glance to her watch as Mamoru rushed forward. "Oh no! I completely forgot! It's the thirtieth of June!" She ran forward to assist Mamoru with getting Usagi into his car.

Hotaru leapt to her feet. "Yay! Chibi-Usa is coming!" She ran forward to where the three cars were parked. She had come with Mamoru and Usagi, Makoto had come with Minako, and Ami had driven herself over from the hospital after stopping by to pick up Rei.

Makoto gave a laugh, rising to her feet. "Hotaru! We'll give you a ride to the hospital, okay?"

Minako beamed at her friend as they joined hands to run out to the car. Hotaru was quick to climb into the small back seat of the convertible, just before the other two got into the front two seats. Ami rushed to join Rei in her car after Usagi was safely in the passenger side of Mamoru's car, and all three vehicles seemed to come to life at once. Ami peeled out first, since she had been the last to arrive, followed by Mamoru who had been parked beside Minako, who was quick to follow as well. From the left-hand seat Makoto dug a car phone from the compartment between the two seats. She quickly dialed in the numbers, then waited for someone to pick up. "Yaten?" She grinned a little. "There's a certain little pink-haired princess on the way!" She paused to listen to the other end before hanging up and looking to the other two girls. "They're meeting us there."

Hotaru beamed, joyful as the news that had delivered such a blow not fifteen minutes ago seemed to take a back seat to this particular occasion. How often did you get to go to the birth of someone who you knew was going to be your beat friend, no matter what may come?

Three hours later, Rei, Minako, Makoto, Hotaru, and Taiki were seated in the waiting room in the maternity ward. They were silent in their waiting, and almost envied Yaten and Seiya who had been so calm about it all that they had headed down to the hospital restaurant to get tea for everyone. Well, more to the point... Yaten had been the calm one. He simply dragged Seiya along with him to help with carrying the tea back to everyone.

Rei gave a sullen sigh. "It's hard to believe that we finally get to be in this hospital for a happy occasion..."

Makoto gave her a small smile, leaning over to hug her. "I know. But let's not think about the reasons why we were here before when something like this is about to happen."

Rei gave a nod, and Minako began to start some little speech, but was stopped by the appearance of Sailor Pluto, who quickly let her transformation fade to leave behind her regular form. "Setsuna! You made it!"

The green-haired woman gave a smile to Minako. "What? You actually thought that I would miss the birth of Small Lady?" She glanced up, tilting her head as she gave another smile. "I'm glad you made it as well."

"You know better than that."

The others spun around to look, then Hotaru leapt up and ran forward. "Haruka!"

Haruka leaned down to scoop Hotaru up in her arms, seemingly without effort though the girl was definitely past an age where she was light enough for most to pick up, especially since she had been born again, she had been far healthier than before. She held onto her for a moment before putting her back down on the floor and crouching down to match her height. "I'm sorry I left like I did. But there are just some things I have to figure out on my own."

Hotaru giggled and ran back to the others. Haruka stood back up and gave them an odd look. "What's that about?"

"Oh really, Haruka..." Minako admonished lightly with a small smile. "Seiya can be so transparent sometimes... and it's never easy to hide love."

Haruka paled a bit, but gave no response and simply stood still. A moment later, Ami emerged from a door and beamed at them all. "She's here."


	11. 10 Second Thoughts

"She's here."

Those sitting rose, and all of them headed into the room to look down at the small bundle in Usagi's arms as Mamoru looked on lovingly. Setsuna stood back for a moment to look at the future royal family of Crystal Tokyo before stepping forward and having Chibi-Usa settled into her arms. She sat down in a chair so that Hotaru may see her better as Haruka gave Usagi a small hug. Taiki headed off to seek his brothers and bring them back.

"Oh, Haruka... I'm so glad that you're back. You had us all so worried as to why you would leave like that."

Haruka smiled faintly down to Usagi. "I apologize. It's just that too much was happening at once. I'm still not certain if I've figured any of it out yet."

Hotaru tore her gaze from Chibi-Usa, her smile turning to a frown. "You're leaving again?"

Taiki found Yaten and Seiya approaching the maternity ward, laden with teas for everyone. Taiki gave a small smile. "Everyone's already in the room with Chibi-Usa..." He paused to take the tray Seiya carried from him. "Everyone, including the other two outer senshi."

Seiya's eyes widened as he rushed forward, flying through the swinging doors that led into what was the maternity ward. Taiki chuckled and shook his head.

Yaten looked up at him. "I don't know why you're so amused... I don't know why either of you bother with connecting with any of them on such a deep level... As soon as we find Kakyuu-hime, we're going home. I don't like having to remind you constantly of that because you seem to constantly forget."

"Ah, Yaten... Give it up. You're not going to stop Seiya from falling in love with Haruka any more than you could stop his infatuation with Usagi."

"Right... just like it's pretty much effortless that I try to get you to stop falling for Ami."

Taiki blushed darkly as they pushed through the doors into the maternity ward. "Don't leave yourself completely out of this, Yaten. I seem to notice that Rei has a particular attachment to you as well."

Yaten blushed as well, but it was so faint it would not have been noticed by anyone but by someone who knew his as well as his brother did. "Ah... At least I don't encourage it or return her affections..."

"Give it time. You will. You can't stay this cold all the time, Yaten. Eventually your tough, icy exterior will crack. And I think the fiery priestess just might be up for the job."

Before Yaten could retort, they were in the room with everyone else. Other's quickly lightened their load by taking a tea. Taiki used his height advantage to look over the heads of the others. "Where'd Seiya and Haruka get to?"

Ami gave a sigh from her chair where she was now resting after helping to deliver Chibi-Usa. "Haruka left before he even got here. He went after her."

Taiki frowned a bit as he took a tea over to Ami and stood next to the chair. Soon, a nurse came in, a bit startled at the amount of people. "Oh my... Alright, everyone! We need to take little Chiba Usagi down to pediatrics now, and Mrs. Chiba needs her rest." Usagi smiled up at Mamoru and they shared a brief kiss, as seemed to be their habit every time called her by her married name. Hotaru reluctantly handed the baby to the nurse who placed her in the wheelable, clear basinet and wheeled her off to pediatrics. They all took a moment to bid farewell to Usagi, leaving Mamoru and her alone for a few moments as they all departed.

Taiki offered to take Ami home, and she agreed after Rei said she'd get her car from the hospital parking lot and drop it off to her tomorrow. After they had left, Rei talked Yaten into letting her take him home, since Taiki would obviously be taking the car the three brothers shared. Noting he didn't look that happy about it, she looked a bit sullen, but cheered up a bit as Yaten made a token effort to cheer her up, and soon those two were gone as well.

"Well, I suppose we ought to get home as well, Makoto. I have an audition in the morning...."

"Right." Makoto threw an arm about the shoulders of her shorter friend and they started off along with Hotaru, but paused as they saw Seiya returning.

He didn't seem to notice them until right before he got to the room, and lifted his gaze to meet with theirs. "She was gone before I even got down to the parking lot..."

"Oh, Seiya..." Minako gave a sad sigh. "Give it time. She's had a lot of scars on her heart lately. That would make this situation hard for anyone, and I can't imagine what it must be like for someone like Haruka."

Seiya nodded, then looked down as Hotaru took his hand. "Come on. We can go see Chibi-Usa together."

"Oh, Hotaru... I've really got to get some rest..."

Mamoru emerged from the room, still smiling as he had been ever since they had arrived at the hospital. "It's alright, Minako. I'll take the two of them home."

Makoto giggled and patted Seiya on the shoulder as she looked back to the taller man. "Mamoru, you make it sound like they're both children..." She grinned and looked to Seiya. "Now, you behave!"

Seiya grumbled good-naturedly, at which everyone gave a small laugh, partially because they were happy that he wouldn't let Haruka's second abrupt departure dampen his mood so much. Minako and Makoto left as Hotaru skipped ahead of Seiya, eager to get a last look at her friend before leaving for the night. Mamoru and Setsuna followed behind at a slightly slower pace, talking softly. They stopped in front of the large window and watched as a nurse made sure Chibi-Usa was carefully settled into the basinet. Seiya smiled a little as he looked in at the pink-haired girl, standing out so much amongst the other babies. He glanced over to note Mamoru still smiling in that fashion he would expect a proud father to, Hotaru was smiling and waving at her, and Setsuna was sort of standing off to the side watching it all with a small smile of her own. She finally bid farewell to the three of them and then was gone. Mamoru lingered a bit longer in front of the window, but finally turned and convinced Hotaru to leave the window as well, and the three of them left. Hotaru held onto both of their hands, skipping happily between them and making their arms swing along with her's.

Seiya couldn't help but chuckle as he watched her, and know what the scene must look like to someone who didn't know them. He tossed a look at Mamoru, but he was off in his own little world. Seiya shook his head and looked up to the sky as they exited the hospital, instinctively seeking out four familiar stars and gave a sigh. He did want to find Kakyuu-hime... that was the entire reason he, Yaten, and Taiki had ended up on Earth. But somewhere deep inside, he felt a bit grateful that she had disappeared like she had, and that he had had a chance to meet all the friends he had made here. And, somewhat guiltily, he thought that he wouldn't mind her staying lost for a while longer. Because when the time came when they did find her, he knew what his duty as a senshi and a protector of Kakyuu-hime would command of him - he would have to leave Earth and return home. From that point, it would be very unlikely that he would ever return to this planet, no matter how much he wanted to.


	12. 11 Ties

"Everyone, come see!"

The gathered group in the back yard of what was once Haruka's house turned to the corner of the yard that they had set up a play pen and a large blanket for Chibi-Usa. Hotaru was settled a few feet from her, and ever so cautiously, the pink-haired princess was toddling her way toward her. Mamoru, who already had the video camera out there to tape his friends, turned the camera on Chibi-Usa as she finished the last few steps and collapsed gleefully into the older girl's arms. Usagi went over and picked her daughter up, hugging her tightly. Everyone else gathered around as well and Chibi-Usa delighted in the attention, though she was quite unaware as to what she had just accomplished. She only giggled and clapped her hands together, looking at everyone else, eyes bright with interest.

Mamoru passed the camera off to Seiya, who dutifully continued to tape Chibi-Usa as her father took her from Usagi and tossed her up into the air, catching her easily as she went straight back to his arms. The little girl squealed in delight, and Usagi squealed out an order at her husband to be careful. He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her softly.

"I'm not intruding on anything, am I?"

Everyone turned to the familiar voice. As Seiya turned, the camera inevitably panned with him, and it settled on Haruka. She was standing at the edge of the yard, a faint smile on her lips as she saw them all. The smile faded as no one moved at first, but was quickly put back in place as Hotaru rushed forward to hug the tall blond. Usagi smiled softly and went over as well, baby Chibi-Usa in the arms of her father who followed along, Minako and Makoto were quick to follow, as were Ami and Rei - and with them went Yaten and Taiki. They all offered her a hug, and soon Haruka was holding the little birthday girl in her arms. Chibi-Usa appeared confused at first, but slowly recognition dawned and a smile lit her face. It didn't hurt that Haruka had just presented her with a pink teddy bear though. This went on for a bit longer before Mamoru tossed a glance back over to Seiya. "I've got to get back to the grill or we'll never get dinner over with until it's time for breakfast..."

Usagi smiled softly at her husband, then took Chibi-Usa and looked to Hotaru. "Come on, let's see if we can get her to walk again." They headed back to the blanket. Minako and Makoto followed, Makoto taking the camera from Seiya so that she could film those who had settled back down on the blanket. Then Taiki and Yaten made some excuse about helping Mamoru with the food and went off with them, Rei following along behind and Ami went to play with Chibi-Usa as well.

Haruka gave the last of her departing friends a faint smile before her gaze finally landed on Seiya. Her smile faded as she awaited his reaction to her return. He didn't say anything at first, just walked over to her slowly as in a manner to waste time. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and watched him approach, remaining silent as she knew she probably deserved to be yelled at for the way she had disappeared. He simply looked up at her for a moment, and then a small, wry grin broke his calm demeanor. "Why do you have to be so tall..?"

She was a little surprised at that reaction. "Uhm... well..." She was stopped in the middle of her attempt to answer as Seiya grabbed the tie she wore and pulled her down so that their lips met. He kept a tight hold on the tie to make the kiss continue, and only let go as a cheer went up from their friends. He released the tie and a blushing Haruka pulled away.

"It's about time!"

Haruka glared over at Minako who only giggled and turned back to Chibi-Usa, who was settled in the middle of the circle and happily playing with the new toy she had just received.

"I figured that I had better do that before you went and told me that all that time away made you decide that you didn't care about me."

Haruka started to respond, but was interrupted by Mamoru calling that dinner was ready. Everything from that point provided no time for private conversation. The table - two picnic tables put end to end - was covered with the things that had just come from the grill, several items that Makoto had brought over, and a few odds and ends that Rei, Ami, and the three brothers had brought. The dinner was loud and boisterous, as was watching Chibi-Usa trying to blow out the single candle on her cake, nearly bursting into tears before Mamoru blew the thing out from behind her back. She laughed gleefully, they all had cake - Chibi-Usa's mainly ending up all over her face or clothes - and then some amount of time was spent on the presents that had been settled before her. Soon the pile of colorfully wrapped boxes was undone and made into instead a pile of presents and a pile of torn paper and ribbons. Hotaru settled a bow on the pink-haired princess's head before helping her down and taking her inside to be washed up. Everyone else set about cleaning, and then leaving. Usagi retrieved Chibi-Usa while Mamoru gathered her things from the back yard with the help of several of the girls and Yaten. Taiki was inside washing the few dishes that belonged to the brothers that had been used for the party along with the help of Ami. Haruka helped Seiya and Makoto with moving the picnic tables from the middle of the yard to the side, back to where when it was bright outside, they would be shielded by the shade of the trees at the edge of the yard. After that, everyone pretty much dissipated. The Chiba family left so that their daughter could get to bed, Minako and Makoto left so that they could get Hotaru back to her house before it was too late, and Taiki and Yaten left with Ami and Rei.

Seiya and Haruka finished up what little cleaning there was left in silence, walking around to the front to toss a couple of garbage bags into the trash cans that awaited pick-up the next day. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and glanced at him again. "Well, let's see if I can get this out now without being interrupted. Seiya, I just can't-"

"Wait, forget it. I don't want to hear this little speech. That's one thing I can live without. Just forget any of what I've told you, okay? I mean, it's not the same thing as how I felt about Usagi, but it will eventually go away too..."

"Seiya-"

"What?! Why do you insist on pursuing this subject? I release you from having to answer, okay. Just leave i-"

"Seiya!" Haruka grabbed his shoulder and spun him around before grabbing the front of his shirt in her fist and holding him in place. "You'd think you would have learned by this point, but there never seems to be any way to get a point across to you without physical force! I haven't seen you in over a year and you still insist on being the one to do all of the talking! Now, can you hold still and shut up long enough to let me talk?"

Slightly surprised by the outburst, he gave a nod of his head and was released.

"Better." She gave a faint sigh and shook her head. "I was going to say that I just can't keep running from this... issue like I have been. I think I've been running from it since that day in the music store..." She trailed off a minute before giving another shake of her head. "Look, my point is that I'm not sure if I love you... Just the idea of even liking a guy is a new thing for me, because I'm at least sure that I'm attracted to you." She smiled a little as Seiya gave a small chuckle.

"Well, that's nice to know."

"Yeah, well... My point is that, while I'm not sure exactly what my feelings are for you, I am sure that I'd like to have the chance to explore them and figure them out..."

"Aw, Haruka... Are you asking me to be your boyfriend? That's so cute..."

She glared at him, but a small blush colored her cheeks. "You know, I could very well just disappear again. It's not that hard to do, really."

"No!" Seiya grinned up at her. "That's okay. I'll quit rubbing it in your face."

"You better."

He smiled and grasped her tie once more to pull her down for another kiss, one that was allowed to go interrupted for some time since their friends were not there to act as an unwanted audience. Seiya finally pulled back after a couple minutes. "Well, that was better."

"You know, I'm going to have to quit wearing ties around you. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with not being the one in control."

Seiya laughed and gave a teasing wink. "Get used to it. Because I'm not planning on letting go of you for a long time yet."


	13. 12 Hidden Truths

Now that Haruka was back, everything in their world seemed to be going right once again. Hotaru, who had become rather depressive and started doing badly in school, was her old self once again and trying out for a part in the new play at school. Setsuna was around a bit more often, though not as often as she would have liked. Usagi and Mamoru were pretty much the same as always, happy since their daughter was back in their life for good this time, but it was obvious that a weight had been lifted from their shoulders when Haruka had returned. Ami was preparing to graduate from college, which meant a lot of studying for finals on her part. There was a festival approaching at the Hikawa Jinja, so Rei was often busy with that, and when Makoto and Minako weren't busy elsewhere, or Minako wasn't out of the country for some photo shoot or another, they would help Rei out. Taiki often headed over to Ami's to help her study after prodding Yaten to go help at the Hikawa Jinja as well. Haruka was often to be found at the park running along the trail, working on her motorcycle or car, or just hanging out with Seiya.

One summer day, they both agreed that it was too pretty to spend the day inside, and too hot at the same time to do anything really strenuous. Their friends seemed to come to the same conclusion on their own, and soon they had arranged for a large picnic at the park next to the community pool. They set everything up in the shade of several sakura trees in full bloom and filling the air with their scent. Lunch didn't take too long, as many of them wanted to head to the swimming pool before it got too much later, and soon Seiya and Haruka were left sitting in the shade of the trees by themselves.

Haruka gave a small grin, shaking her head as she watched everyone head down to the pool with their towels and shed the clothes they wore over their bathing suits before diving in. Hotaru followed much more slowly as she kept a careful watch on Chibi-Usa, who could now toddle about with a certain amount of confidence. "Ever notice how they always leave us behind to finish cleaning up?" She asked as she worked at wrapping things back up and replacing the lids.

"Yeah, well.... I can't really say that I mind. It's a ready-made excuse to hang back for a few extra minutes and talk," Seiya explained as he helped her.

"You make it sound like there's something on your mind."

"Sort of..." Seiya finished replacing the last of the food items into one of the many picnic baskets assembled on the blankets before sitting back down and leaning against the tree and looking up at her. "What is it that you did all that time you were gone...? I know it was a hard decision and all, but couldn't you have thought about just as easily here?"

She gave a small sigh, turning her gave up the patches of sky visible through the branches and blossoms. "To tell the truth, I couldn't have. I guess... Well, you know how I am. I hadn't ever allowed my heart make decisions for me, even when it came to Michiru at times... and Nina. If I had, I doubt that I would be here any longer. So I had to get away from here, away from you to help factor that out and just give myself time to think without having so much of an influence from my heart. Plus, I guess... there were just some things I had to reconcile with myself." She gave a small smirk, settling down on the blanket a couple of feet away from him. "But I guess I did the exact opposite. I didn't realize it until the end of all my traveling - it's the reason I came back when I did. I would have stayed gone for much longer... I realized that all the places that I was traveling to were places that I had been to with Michiru over the years. So I gave up and let my heart make the decision for the first time since I killed that man..."

"Well... I guess that's understandable..." He smirked a little over at her. "I guess I can't really bring that up in any future arguments we may have, can I?"

She glanced up at him for a moment, then gave a small smirk. "No."

Seiya sat in silence for a few more moments before climbing to his feet. "Come on. Let's go join the others."

Haruka nodded her agreement and stood, the two of them walking together down to the pool. They shed the t-shirts and shorts they wore over their bathing suits - Haruka's a navy blue one piece and Seiya's a pair of red trunks.

Yaten caught sight of them and gave a teasing grin from his spot where he lounged in the sun. "Aw, now aren't you two such a cute couple..."

Haruka and Seiya just looked at him for a moment, not saying anything as Ami, Rei, and Taiki came up behind with him with water guns filled icy cold water and attacked. At the end of it, when he was shivering and drenched in the spot where he had jumped up, Seiya gave a small grin. "Yeah, I think we are." Then he dove into the deep end of the pool.

"Wow, Yaten... from how you act, I would have thought that ice water wouldn't really bother you... since you pretty much have it running through your veins."

Yaten just glared at Haruka until Rei gently wrapped a sun-warmed towel about his shoulders. He gave her a slightly surprised look, then smiled a little. "Thanks..."

Haruka smirked, sitting down on the edge of a lounge chair a few safe feet from the edge of the pool. After Yaten had had a chance to warm up, Rei gave a teasing grin and pulled the towel away as Ami and Taiki shoved him into the pool. He came up sputtering, only causing the three of them to laugh even more. Rei dove in after him, soon followed by Taiki. Ami looked over to Haruka and gave her a small smile. "Coming, Haruka?"

The blonde returned the smile with a faint one of her own before shaking her head. "No, I think I'll just lay out in the sun for a while... As long as you guys don't attack me like you did Yaten."

Ami laughed, shaking her head. "Of course not. It's just that Yaten usually doesn't join in with anyone willingly, and Rei had finally had her fill of it and decided to do something about it." With that, she dove into the water with her friends.

Haruka sat back and watched as she swam several laps down the length of the pool before joining the others in a game of volleyball. Hotaru got out with Chibi-Usa and walked over to Haruka, since that's where a bag of the little girl's things were. Hotaru settled down on the chair next to her, wrapping Chibi-Usa in a towel before getting out and preparing a small juice box and handing it to the pink-haired toddler. As she drank, Hotaru looked over to Haruka. "Are you alright, Haruka-papa?"

"I'm fine, Hotaru." Haruka gave her a small smile. "Quit worrying about me so much, you have your own life to live. Now let me watch Chibi-Usa for a little bit and you go and play with the others... the Dynamic Blonde Duo are at it again."

Hotaru looked out a the pool where the others played their game and Usagi and Minako dove for the ball at the same moment, colliding with each other. She gave a small giggle before standing up and settling Chibi-Usa down on the side of Haruka's chair. "I guess I'd better go balance out the blondeness..." She paused, looking down at Haruka. "And I'm not going to stop worrying about you. You're more a part of my life than anyone else here, you know that." She placed a faint kiss on the older woman's cheek before heading off to join the others.

Haruka looked after her for a few long moments and shaking her head. "That girl is far mature for her age..."

She heard a short, mocking laugh behind her and looked up to find Setsuna standing there in a dark green bikini. "Well, if that isn't the most hypocritical thing I've ever heard from you, Haruka." She smiled and scooped up Chibi-Usa who had squealed in delight as she recognized her, discarding the juice box and holding up her arms to be picked up. Setsuna settled down on the other side of Haruka into a dry chair, holding on to the smaller girl.

"Yeah, well... as you know, there were several issues that made me grow up a little faster than most."

"Yes, I know. I watched over all of you from the Gates. I wished that I could help you with all that you had to go through when you realized that you liked girls, even at that age. It was the first time I had ever seen you cry, Haruka, when your parents were so unaccepting at first. But you must remember, while the rest of you were reborn on Earth as babies and got to enjoy life to its fullest until you were awakened, Hotaru's life was darkened by events before she even became a senshi... and then when she was reborn, a second chance at early childhood was taken from her because of how quickly she grew up."

"I know... She holds something on her shoulders just the same as you, Setsuna... an extra weight that even as an outer senshi I don't really think I can imagine. But I just wish that I could help her with it, she deserves to be able to enjoy herself so much more than she does."

"Oh, Haruka... She is enjoying life more now than she was ever able to before. She's healthy and can do all the things that she wants... and she only wants to help lift some of the weight that you carry with you just as much as you want to help her. She, more than anyone else - even me, can fathom how you feel about Michiru and knows that the loss of Nina only made it that much worse for you. You two have a strong connection, Haruka, almost like sisters would." She looked out over the water at everyone playing. "Even you must have noticed that you two always know when something's wrong with the other, no matter how much you try to hide it from everyone. You've learned to read each other that well, better than anyone else could hope to. I think only the bond you had with Michiru might stand a chance in comparison." She grew quiet for a few long moments then smiled, looking back over at Haruka. "Now go play. It's as much for her good as it is for yours."

Haruka stared at her for a few long moments before shaking her head with a small chuckle. "Yes, mother." She rose and dove into the pool, swimming over to Seiya's team, since it was him, his two brothers, and Mamoru against Usagi, Ami, Minako, Rei, Makoto, and Hotaru. Makoto gave a teasing smile. "Well, I guess it's still kind of guys versus girls match..."

Haruka just smirked over at her as the ball was tossed to her to serve. "You're going to regret that..." With that, she hit the ball over the net with ease, neatly landing it in between Minako and Usagi only to have the two of them collide once more.

"Hey, no fair! Taking advantage of a handicap!"

Haruka tried to look innocent. "You guys have a handicap? But you have one more person than us, I would think that we had the handicap... What's the score anyway?"

Mamoru chuckled a little. "Eleven to eight, we're going to fifteen."

"That's not that bad..."

"You would think so," said Taiki, "but because of the blonde factor, we gave them a handicap of five points."

Haruka couldn't help but laugh as Usagi and Minako scowled. "Hey, I'm really good at volleyball, I was on the team at school! It's just that Usagi's so clumsy at everything that she's throwing me off whack by actually trying and only ending up with giving me a concussion!"

Everyone laughed as Hotaru swam forward and traded spots with her, putting the blonde in between Makoto and Ami. "There... I'm shorter than you, that way when Usagi dives for the ball, she won't hit me in the head." The others grinned and the game started up once more.

The game soon became a closer match with Makoto and Minako teamed up next to each other, even against the height advantage of Taiki and Mamoru being over six feet tall (though they periodically argued, with the help of Haruka, that this advantage might very well be cancelled out due to how short Seiya and Yaten were). It finally ended, though, when Taiki spiked the ball over the net after Haruka served, ending the game with a score of twenty-one to nineteen.

Hotaru got out of the pool and went to sit and play with Chibi-Usa while Mamoru tried to cheer up a pouting Usagi from all the jabs at her clumsiness earlier. Haruka got out of the pool as well and went to dry off. Then she sat down next to Setsuna once more to talk with her. Ami began her laps once more as Taiki sat at the edge of the pool, his feet dangling in the water as he timed her. The others started up various water games to help pass the time.

"So," Setsuna began with a smile, "how're things going with Seiya?"

Haruka looked to the pool to watch as the Seiya and Yaten hoisted Minako and Makoto onto the shoulders as the two girls began their attempts to knock each other down and Rei refereed, laughing all the while. "I don't want to get that close to him, Setsuna. I'm surprised I've allowed myself to get this close to him, to tell the truth..."

Setsuna's expression softened. "Haruka... can't you allow yourself some happiness? It seems you've been purposefully running away from it almost all your life... you even avoided Michiru for a while."

Haruka turned to her, her expression slightly hardened. She didn't notice that Hotaru had paused in rolling a ball back and forth with Chibi-Usa to watch their conversation. "I don't have to be able to see the future to know that he and I won't last, Setsuna. He only came here to find his princess, and then he'll leave. His duty to her, and love for his brothers... sisters, whatever, will outweigh anything we might ever have. I won't be the one to force him into such a decision. May the powers that be forgive me for this comment, but I would have even ignored my love to Michiru if it had come down to a choice between her or someone as close to me as those three are... If it had one day somehow happened that Michiru had decided that she rather fight against us, and she weren't under the control of the enemy... I wouldn't have hesitated in leaving her side to save you all. Sometimes your sense of right just out rules the heart. Every day now is like a battle of right over my heart. Even coming here was a small battle..." She shook her head and looked back to the pool as Minako was knocked from Seiya's shoulders. She pulled her gaze away and began pulling her clothes back on over her bathing suit.

"Haruka-papa?"

She looked down to Hotaru and gave a faint smile, leaning down to kiss the girl on the forehead. "I need to be alone right now, okay? But don't worry, I'm not going off somewhere to sulk... I just missed my morning run the past week because of the heat, and it's cooling off a bit now, since there's a storm headed this way." With that, she walked away, heading back toward where she had parked her motorcycle.

The others noticed the clouds gathering in the distance and began climbing out of the pool as well. As they were drying off, Seiya glanced over to where his things lay, next to which Haruka's was. He glanced over to Setsuna, who had settled down to play with Chibi-Usa as Hotaru dried herself off. "Where did she get off to?"

"Off to run. She said it had been too hot this past week and it was cooler now that a storm was blowing in."

"Eh... that girl needs to get herself a treadmill."

Setsuna laughed softly, but Makoto bonked him upside the head. "Baka. She doesn't run just to run... Not anymore, anyway. She needs to feel the wind." She smirked a bit as she slid her arms into the sleeves of a button-up shirt. "We Earth soldiers need to get in touch with our elements at times to feel at peace... Ami swims, Rei consults with her sacred fire, Minako has this thing for getting people to fall in love, and well... me, I can't very well touch electricity, so I fight - adrenaline is as close as I can get."

Hotaru glanced up with a small smile. "I can't really touch mine either... death and all, so I just sort of meditate... Though sometimes I do like to walk around in cemeteries..."

Yaten gave a small shudder as he walked over, clothed once more. "Morbid little kid."

Hotaru blew a raspberry at him, which made everyone laugh as they gathered around. Rei bopped him on the head before the two of them excused themselves and left, leaving their friends smirking at their backs. Taiki and Ami left so that she get in a couple more hours of study time before her finals started the next day. The remaining group headed back up to where they had picnicked, snagging snacks out of the baskets to munch on as they loaded things into people's cars. Soon the Chiba family left with Hotaru, who was spending the night.

Makoto punched Seiya lightly on the arm. "Don't worry about her. She'll be back at her apartment before the storm gets too bad, I promise." With that, Makoto left with Minako, her arm about her waist.

Setsuna looked after the pair before bringing her garnet gaze to rest on the slightly shorter Seiya. "She's still afraid of getting too close to you, you know?"

He sighed, lifting her shoulders into a small shrug. "I figured as much. She's probably afraid of the fact that I'll more than likely leave one day... But what can I do? I can't lie and tell her it's not a real possibility, and I can't force her to love me for the time that I will be here. I can only hope that she'll understand that I love her anyway, no matter what." He glanced up to the sky. "I'd better get going before it gets too bad..." He looked from the sky back to her with a small smirk. "I'm not the ace driver that Haruka is... Need a ride anywhere...?"

"Sure. I'm taking a small vacation from the Gates. Drop me off at Haruka's apartment?"

"Staying with her? Can you get in? It doesn't exactly look like there's anyplace to put a key in that thing..." He joked with a small gesture to her bikini.

She laughed softly as they headed to his car. "No, there's not... But the guy at the front desk will know me. Haruka always has a spare key there for when I drop by."

"Oh, great... Haruka has a beautiful woman that stays at her apartment for days on end..."

Setsuna laughed once more as she climbed into the passenger side of the car that he had opened for her, pulling her legs in before he shut the door and went around to his side, climbing in and starting the engine. "Whatever you have going through that perverted male mind of yours, stop it. She has a two-bedroom apartment, I stay in the second room. Besides, I love someone else and if nothing else, Haruka's faithful."

Seiya gave her a surprised look as they pulled out of the parking lot. "You're in love? With who?"

She looked out the car window, falling silent.

"Alright, I get it. None of my business... Well, whoever it is, I hope it works out for you."

Giving a small smirk, she glanced over at him. "It won't. But I don't mind... I can still be happy, though. So don't worry about it."

He looked at her for a long moment as he paused at a red light. It was a wonder what the people of this system were like. They would suffer endlessly just to see the ones they loved be happy. He looked away. The light changed, and he drove on.


	14. 13 New Beginnings

The days of summer passed not quite as lazily as that one particular hot day at the pool. After Ami's exams were over, they threw a big party to celebrate her graduation. Minako was booked for a photo shoot in Australia and left with Makoto right after a week-long festival at the Hikawa Jinja. The Three Lights had booked themselves on another tour, one that wouldn't end until December. Hotaru prepared for school once more toward the end of the summer while Haruka kept herself busy with several races, though she didn't commit to a tour as she had the year before.

In fact, Haruka was more often found inside a small shop in Tokyo, helping Setsuna prepare for the opening day of her business. Since there was no longer any threat of an enemy showing up, she was ready to move on with her life as well. She was setting up a seamstress business to keep herself in practice while she privately worked on developing her own line of fashions. Usagi had often complained of boredom, just sitting around the house and watching Chibi-Usa, so Setsuna kindly hired her on as a secretary and cornered off part of the shop for Chibi-Usa.

As Haruka worked on putting up the shelves and clothes hangar rods that Setsuna would require to store the clothes, the green-haired woman stood back and admired what the little shop had become. When she had first bought the place (with some assistance from her friends, of course) it was a dark and drabby place that had been used for a butcher's shop. After some very extensive cleaning and tearing down of various built-in utilities that she would no longer need, she had set about decorating the place. The front room had been been equipped with a desk for Usagi (that she herself had decorated by painting it pink, much to Chibi-Usa's delight, and decorating it with little rabbits and crescent moons), and a counter upon which sat the cash register. The walls had been painted a soft shade of purple and furnished with the various items Chibi-Usa would need in her corner, several black cushiony chairs for customers, end tables which held fashion magazines, and the walls sported several original pieces of Michiru's work. The doorway that had led into the back of the shop was equipped with a door, and what had once been a room with several counters for chopping up meat was now filled with shelves and clothes hangar rods along the back wall, along the wall to the left of the door were set up two sewing machines on desks, on the right wall there were shelves which held various fabrics, threads, replacement needles for the machines, and typical office supplies. But back in what had once been the large freezer had undergone the biggest change. The metallic walls were covered with a deep green, velvet fabric, decoratively bunched. Along the back wall were two bookshelves that already held several pieces of reference materials for starting up a business and such, in the middle sat a large, stained oak desk with a comfortable black leather seat behind it, as well as two more in front of it. Here, too, the walls held several more pieces of original art by Michiru, though these were the ones that tended to hold a bit more depth and meaning than the cheery ones in the front room.

Haruka laughed a bit as she walked into the office behind Setsuna, shaking her head a little. "What would a little seamstress business owner need with an office like this?"

Setsuna smiled, looking around as she stepped over the plush black carpetting. "Nothing, really... I probably wouldn't need any more of an office than just a place to store my business information and such... But who doesn't want an office like this some day? Sure, it's missing the outstanding view," she smirked a bit at this, "but, I guess it's more of an indulgence than anything else. Someplace to be when business is slow."

"That and we could always push the desk against the wall and have a really cool party."

Setsuna laughed at that comment. "That's true too... Come on. I told Usagi to drop by and check things out since she hasn't been here since I first bought the place. The day we moved in the desk she decorated, she had to take Chibi-Usa to the hospital for a check-up, and I bought all the things for Chibi-Usa on my own."

"Just a business expense, huh?"

Setsuna grinned over at her friend. "Employee child care center! Besides, I have very generous investors."

Haruka chuckled and shook her head. "Be glad I trust you with my money."

They were just about to enter the front room when they heard someone gasp, and walked in to find Usagi with her baby, as well as Mamoru, Rei, and Hotaru.

"It's wonderful here, Setsuna!" Usagi beamed at her friend, walking over to settle Chibi-Usa in her area to see how she would take to it.

Hotaru hugged her before she led them on the abbreviated tour of the place, leaving Haruka up front to keep an eye on the baby as she happily worked on fitting various shaped blocks into the appropriately shaped holes. She took her gaze from the contented child to gaze at the artwork on the walls, giving a small sigh as she paused to look at one in particular that portrayed a cloudless night sky above a dark, wind-tossed sea. She smiled faintly and shook her head as she peered at it until her friends returned. Hotaru came over, taking her hand as she gazed up at her. "Are you sad, Haruka-papa?"

Haruka looked down at her and gave a small smile. "No... It's just that I've noticed something about this painting that I never noticed before..." She turned back to the painting as the rest of her friends came up behind her to find out what she had discovered. She pointed to the cliffs that hung over the water, jutting out from the side of the painting. "Look just below the cliffs... If you just glance at it, it looks solid, but if you look closer, there's actually a cave, and there's a shadow of someone sitting down and playing a violin."

Hotaru made an effort to look closer and ended up being lifted slightly by Haruka. She peered closely then looked back at her and gave a small smile. "It's like Michiru's spirit is at the seaside."

Haruka glanced down at her as she set her down and smiles back at her. "You know, I think you're right. And there's not any other place where I can picture her being."

"Me either," Setsuna stated, putting an arm about Haruka's shoulder. Then she cast her gaze to the others. "I don't know about you guys, but I definately don't feel like heading home and cooking anything. Anyone want to join me at a restaurant?"

"Bah... if you're not cooking, I've got no choice."

Everyone laughed at Haruka's comment, though they all knew she was perfectly capable of fixing a meal for herself. They agreed to the restaurant suggestion though, and decided on a small restaurant within walking distance of her new business. They set out, Mamoru and Usagi out in front with Chibi-Usa toddling along precariously between them, clinging carefully to one of their hands each. Setsuna paused long enough make sure the shop was locked securely and was soon walking alongside Hotaru and Haruka, Hotaru reaching up and taking their hands and swinging them in a happy manner. Haruka could only chuckle before reaching down and scooping her up, slinging her over her shoulder before tickling her.

Hotaru giggled and squirmed for several moments before finding herself sat back down on her feet. She stuck her tongue playfully out at Haruka before taking off to join the three of them ahead of her. She took over the task of assisting Chibi-Usa in her walking, taking both of her hands and holding on tightly as she walked half beside her, half behind her. Mamoru and Usagi dropped behind them to keep a careful eye on them, their hands joining automatically.

Haruka watched this all before glancing over to Setsuna who was instead surveying her with a sad sort of smile. "What's wrong?"

"You miss being a mother, don't you?"

The blond blushed a little before shaking her head. "What, me? I'm not exactly mother material, Setsuna... I just fell into it with Nina because it felt right. But that was just because I loved her, not because of some sort of maternal clock or anything..." She fell silent before giving a small chuckle. "Which might be a good thing or I might be inclined to hurry this relationship with Seiya along."

Setsuna laughed and shook her head. "I guess girls like you just don't go through the maternal clock bit." She grinned at the look Haruka cast her way. "I got over mine a long time ago, though, I guess... Comes with the job."

"But Setsuna... that's not your job anymore. Or at least, the job isn't as demanding as it once was. You're starting a new life here. Shouldn't having your own family be part of that?"

The green-haired woman looked to her friend before managing a faint smile. "Maybe. But you know that there's obstacles that still remain to prevent me from doing that."

Haruka slipped a comforting arm about her waist. "Speaking from experience, Setsuna... You have to let yourself move on. There's nothing you can do to change that. I know you have the strength to do it because of the simple fact of who you are, and the things you've had to experience. If I was able to get myself back into a normal life after Michiru... I know you can move on too and be happy once it's all over."

Setsuna laughed faintly. "Talk about turning the table... But you're right. But I don't know if I can do it on my own."

"You think any of us would let you?" Haruka grinned at her before dropping her arm from her waist and relieving Mamoru of holding the door so he could follow in after Usagi, then held it open to allow Setsuna in before entering herself.

A couple hours later, the group of six exited the restaurant and parted ways, Haruka and Setsuna heading to Haruka's apartment just an extra block or so away, and the others heading back to Mamoru's car which was in front of Setsuna's shop.

"So, ready for the big opening?"

"Definitely..." Setsuna smiled a little. "I can't believe that it's less than a week away! I was so afraid we wouldn't get it all done in time... But here we are, finished with everything that's in our control... and the last of my supplies are supposed to arrive in two days, three days before opening."

"Good, because there's this circuit I want to sign up for... The sign-ups begin on the day of your opening, but not until a couple hours after, so I should be able to be there and still make it in plenty of time."

"Ah, when are you going to be back from this one?"

"Uhm... Mid-December, I believe. I'll be back in time for the winter holidays, don't worry. I happen to know that there's a race scheduled for Thanksgiving though..."

"That's alright. I think I can manage to keep the plants watered until then," Setsuna said with a small smile as they entered the apartment building and started up the stairs. "Do you ever miss that big house as compared to this place?"

Haruka appeared thoughtful a moment before shaking her head. "No, not really... It was just a lot of space that I never used. I mean, it was great for having people over and for when it was more than just me living there... but I've got plenty of room here for a certain friend and it's so much easier to keep clean."

Setsuna laughed softly and shakes her head. "Good point. It's probably better for those three to have big place like that... with all their little quarrels, there's plenty of doors to slam and plenty of space to put in between them. And we still have the back yard for parties!"

Haruka chuckled as she opened the door to the apartment and the two entered, closing the door behind them.


	15. 14 Duties of a Soldier

Five days later, Haruka woke and went to the living room to find that Setsuna had left hours ago to finish last-minute preparations for the opening. Glancing to the clock, she realized that it was just under an hour until the opening, and Setsuna had asked that her friends be there a few minutes early. Giving a small curse underneath her breath, she grabbed an outfit from her bedroom and headed to take a quick shower before heading out. Twenty minutes later, after showering, dressing, and grabbing something small to eat, she made sure to grab her keys and lock the door before running down the stairs. Trying to figure out why she had slept in and missed her morning run and almost missed the opening. But, as she ran down the sidewalk, dodging other pedestrians with ease, she thought that at least she got to make up for it now.

She managed to arrive before the opening, but still after all of her friends. She went inside as a few customers came up to wait the few minutes until the shop opened. It wasn't anything near to a crowd, but, for a business just starting up, it was pretty good. The group of assembled friends told anyone that they knew about Setsuna's new business, and it appeared that many of them were ready and willing to lend their support. Haruka found herself drawn into a hug by a smiling Setsuna. "I thought you weren't going to make it, sleepy-head!" With no further comment beyond that, Setsuna went off to talk with the others, who had been double-checking over things for her.

Haruka looked after her with a small smile. She couldn't recall a time when she had ever seen Setsuna this happy. Not in all the time she had served with her on the outer reaches of the solar system as a soldier, fought by her side here on Earth, or just hung out with her during one of the breaks in between enemy threats had she seen her have any reason to smile so much.

She sighed and shook her head before heading down the hallway to look over things herself. She was a bit upset at the fact that she would miss the cut-off time for registering for the races, but there was no way that she would miss something so important to one of her friends. But she laughed as she came upon the large office. Apparently Setsuna had taken what she had said literally and had actually pushed the office furniture to the side and set up for a decent-sized party. She started to leave to go ask Setsuna about it when Setsuna opened the door at the end of the hallway. "There you are! If you hadn't noticed, I kind of set up for a small party back there - one just for us later on and a few of the customers... Usagi said that she had told Naru and Umino about the opening. Anyway, I hired a band and they just pulled up and are unloading their things. Do you think you could come up here and help, show them where to set up back there?"

"Uhm, sure." Haruka headed out to the main room, then immiediately felt like chasing after Setsuna. Standing there inside the doorway were the Three Lights. She looked over at Setsuna and gave a teasing glare. "You're going to be in so much trouble later, you know that, right?"

Setsuna grinned over at her as a response before going back to playing with Chibi-Usa. Taiki chuckled before taking on the task of finding an electrical outlet so they could play a little outside before going in for the party later before settling down to test his guitar. Seiya sat on the edge of Usagi's desk as Haruka walked over, shaking her head.

"So," he began with a small grin as he reached out and grabbed her tie, "what, are you not happy to see me?"

"I didn't say that... It just seems that ever since I came back, everyone's been purposely hiding things from me until the last possible minute."

"Ah... You'll get over it. So, long lines at registration? Setsuna told me you just managed to show up a few minutes ago after she left the apartment and you were still asleep..."

"Actually... I pretty much ran straight here after waking up. I've only been up for..." She looked up at a clock on the wall, "about forty-five minutes now."

"Ouch... I guess that means you're free for the next few months."

She lifted an eyebrow at the comment, trying to figure out what he was getting at before giving in and just asking. "What's your point?"

"Well... a couple of the places were stopping to play at are charity events. Playing mainly in concert halls and stadiums so far isn't working, so we're going to try a few things like this. Kakyuu-hime was always kind-hearted, so they're all likely places for her to show up. Anyway, a couple of them are actually marathons, and we talked to the people organizing the events, and they liked the idea of having some celebrities being in the actual race, so..."

Haruka chuckled, finally getting her tie out of his hands. "So instead of signing up yourself, you volunteered me without even knowing if I'd be able to make it."

"Pretty much... but Yaten also actually liked the idea of you coming along..."

"Are you waiting for me to have a heart attack or are you going to tell me the reason behind this bizarre occurence?"

"Well, he was sort of wondering if maybe he could teach you some of our songs so that he could go out into the audiences and see if he could spot Kakyuu-hime, just in case she's not recognizing us..."

The smile slipped off Haruka's face almost immediately at the suggestion.

"You don't have to if you don't want, of course... I know how you were at the music store, and -"

"Seiya, we need to get ready! Setsuna's about to open the doors!"

Seiya nodded at his taller brother before looking back to Haruka, who had managed to find a smile. "No, it's fine. Just try not to leave me with any singing parts."

He grinned before hopping down and heading over to his brothers. "No problem."

Needless to say, the next couple of hours were hectic. Everyone's friends had been the first to show up and decided to hang out until the party began. Then as the Three Lights began playing, along with the promotion of giving out autographed CDs to customers, more and more people streamed in to drop off their clothing, then lingered outside to listen to the band. Rei, Ami, Makoto, and Minako had even ended up helping Usagi take down information, and Mamoru had been talked into carrying the things back to where they belonged. Hotaru had the task of helping to keep Chibi-Usa occupied while Setsuna was busily going back and forth between directing the others and greeting the customers as they entered, then handing them their promised CDs as they exited.

Minako managed to esape from her task for a few minutes to come over to talk with Haruka, who had been sullenly watching over things, occasionally forcing a smile as someone noticed her and waved. Minako's smile faded as she got to her friend, though. "Haruka? What's wrong?"

"Well, for one, I missed the registration cut off..."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. My fault anyway. But I told Seiya about it, and he asked if I would come along on tour with the Three Lights so that I could be in some of the charity marathons they were playing at the after parties for."

"No problem there, right?"

"No. I even joked with him about it. But then he asked if I would mind filling in for Yaten on a few of their songs so Yaten could go out into the audiences and see if he could spot their princess, just in case she wasn't recognizing them."

"Oh, Haruka... he's basically asking you to help him leave, isn't he?"

"Without realizing it, yes."

Minako gave a wistful smile. "I hadn't realized that you had started to feel so much for him."

"Neither had I. Before all of this started to happen... I would have done anything to help him to get out of here, even go on tour with him, no matter how much I hated him. But now..."

"You love him," Minako filled in for her. She smiled at the small scowl on Haruka's face. "Well, that's progress. Before the last time you disappeared, you would have argued with me about that until you ran out of breath... and that's saying a lot, considering how athletic you are."

"You're pushing it."

The pretty blond laughed. "Alright, alright. I'll stop. But don't let that keep you from admitting to yourself what you know to be the truth."

"Minako! Get your cute little butt back over here!"

She giggled and winked at Haruka before turning and running back over to Makoto's side, taking over a few customers for her.

Finally, a long while later, Setsuna was able to close the doors as the Three Lights brought their things in. She smiled over at them. "Sorry, you guys. I hadn't expected that you need to play that long. You can skip out on playing for the party, if you want to."

Seiya grinned and presented a CD player. "We were planning on it."

Laughing, everyone headed to the office as Seiya approached Haruka. "Something wrong? During a couple breaks, I sort of noticed that you were kind of hanging back by yourself."

Minako looked back from where she had been walking hand-in-hand with Makoto. She glanced over to Haruka, and it was pretty obvious she wouldn't tell Seiya what was bothering her, so she did. "It's about her filling in for Yaten, Seiya! Even I could figure out that you're pretty much asking her to help you leave even sooner!"

Haruka scowled at Minako before Makoto had the good sense to pull her away, Hotaru trailing behind with Chibi-Usa so that Seiya and Haruka would be left alone. Seiya looked back to her. "...Haruka?"

She sighed, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall. "Look, I said that it was fine before, and that's what I meant. When you think about it, it makes more sense for me to help things along so you can leave sooner. I mean, less time for me to really start feeling something more than I do now, right? Don't worry about it."

"Haruka, I hadn't meant for it to sound like I'm trying to get out of here as soon as possible. If I had it my way, we would find her and still stay here..."

"But it won't be you way, and it will be your duty to leave. I can understand that, Seiya. You're not the only soldier here, you know. I've lived two lifetimes understanding the fact that my role as a senshi is more important that my personal life... I'm surprised that you've stayed around for this long, actually. On other planets, wouldn't you have moved on already?"

"I suppose we would have, but the population here is a lot more vast than on a lot of planets. Plus, Taiki and I both had personal reasons for staying. Again, I won't lie and say that it isn't a possibility that I'll have to leave at some point. My duty is to follow Kakyuu-hime. But it's also possible that if she's been here all this time, she might have come to accept this place as a second home, like Taiki and I have. And wherever Kakyuu-hime is happy to stay. Yaten will be happy too."

"Don't be mad if I say that I'd have to see that happen before I'll believe it."

"Pessimist."

"Hey, I am how I am. Given the last couple of years, I think I'm entitled to that."

"True. Just don't let it become so over-whelming that you see a shadow around everything you look at before you see the light."

"I think I can handle that."

"Good," he said before giving a smile, grabbing her tie and pulling her down so they their lips met. They parted a couple minutes later, Haruka grumbling good-naturedly as he took her hand and led her down the hall toward the party. "One of these days I'm going to get you back for using my tie like a leash."

Seiya grinned before they entered, looking back at her. "Promise?" He ducked as a hand came flying at his head, then escaped into the group of people dancing to the music on the radio.


	16. 15 Return

One day a couple of months later found Haruka rushing to get back to the hotel and shower before having to rush right back out to meet up with the Three Lights because she had been scheduled to start off the show in Yaten's place for a couple of songs before trading with him. Things everywhere were hectic in preparation for Thanksgiving and the many parades and festivals that would mean.

She made it back in plenty of time and settled backstage with Taiki and Seiya, since Yaten had made a habit of watching people entering the area before the stage from a safe enough distance to keep himself from being recognized. Taiki sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "You know... as much as I miss our home, I think that I will miss Earth with all its holidays, times set apart each and every year when people make a point to see their family and friends just as much."

Seiya smiled cautiously with a side-long glance at Haruka to check her reaction. "Not near as much as you'll miss Ami though."

Taiki blushed and it was Haruka who made an effort to lighten the mood. "What, you don't ever worrying about some government agency tracking you aliens down?"

Seiya swatted her playfully as his brother laughed. "You know, Haruka, you're not exactly from Earth either."

"No... But I was born here in this life, and I don't literally change my gender as a disguise."

Both brothers began to protest at this before she grinned and got up. "Don't we have a show to start?"

The good-natured argument was forgotten as Haruka led the way out on stage to the keyboard, followed by Taiki with his guitar, and then Seiya who went to the microphone at the front of the stage. As the lead singer started in on a little speech about the marathon and the charity it was for, Haruka glanced out over the crowd, smiling a little to see how different the crowd the Three Lights attracted was from the sort that Michiru and Haruka would play for. She tuned back in at the appropriate moment when Seiya made a mention of her winning the race, lifting a hand to wave briefly before looking down to the keyboard before her and check over everything. Yaten preferred to use a more mobile keyboard, one that he could wear much like Taiki did his guitar, so that he could move about the stage freely. As much as he disdained the female admirers that wrote to him, it seemed to be in his nature to play to the crowd. She looked up in time to catch nods from the other two, nodded as well and then began in on the first song.

She lost track of time as she played through the memorized songs, and wasn't even paying attention as she left the stage with the keyboard and stand in tow to let Yaten take his place. Taking the keyboard further backstage, she set it back up and began to softly play, losing herself much as she would when she sat before her piano. Drowning out the much louder music from the three brothers, and the noise of an enthusiastic crowd, she played and sang softly a song all her own, 'Kaze ni Nari Tai'.

When she finished, she was surprised to hear clapping, and opened her eyes to find that the brothers had announced their break and found their way back to her in time to catch some of the song. She shook her head and turned the keyboard off. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."

"What sneak?" Taiki asked with a smile. How could you miss Seiya announcing that we're taking a break, and then us coming back here with the crowd even louder than before?"

Seiya chuckled. "It doesn't matter. At least it meant you kept playing like we weren't here... that song was really beautiful, what is it?"

"Ah... Kaze ni Nari Tai... Michiru had Unmei wa Utsukushiku sort of picked out as her own personal anthem, and that's mine." She stood to go elsewhere and noticed that at some point, Taiki and Yaten had gone off as well.

"Haruka?" She glanced back to Seiya, stuffing her hands into her pocket as he approached her. He gave a wry smile. "It's been nearly five months since we started going out and you're still not comfortable with just idly holding my hand."

"Eh... well," she grinned a little. "I'm still getting used to the whole concept of making out with a guy... funny how that seems less personal than just holding someone's hand, isn't it?"

He smiled at the making out comment. "In a way..." He sighed a little. "Haruka, I've been thinking about this for about a month now, ever since during one show I looked back at you at the keyboard and saw how unhappy you were... do you even want to be together, with the risk of me leaving at any time? I could understand if you didn't want to..."

Haruka chuckled, shaking her head. "So that's what's made you thoughtful lately. And here I was, thinking it was something that was worth thinking about." She smiiled a bit, bringing out both her hands to grasp his. "I know I'm going to regret sounding so girly, but I do enjoy spending my time with you, Seiya. I'd forgotten what it felt like to be in a relationship where you were so unsure of so many things. Now it's something completely different before. With Michiru I was always unsure if we would even live to be together the next day, and when I finally could relax, that whole... thing happened, and I was always worried about her health." She paused briefly to make sure she kept calm before continuing. "But in a way, this is all new. I just have to worry about the little things in a relationship that a normal person might have to worry about. How I feel about you, how you feel about me... worrying if one day you will have to leave me... granted, it's different because you'll be leaving the planet," she said with a small laugh, "but still. I kind of like it, actually."

Seiya smiled at her, then glanced away briefly to acknowledge Taiki coming up just long enough to tell him that they needed to get back on stage, then leave. He looked back to her, smile returning. "I guess I did all that worrying for nothing. But at least telling you about it gave me a chance to find out how you feel... I love you, Ten'ou Haruka."

She actually blushed a little and looked down before she felt his hands slip away from hers as he headed back to the stage. He had grown used to not hearing a like response to those words, so he wasn't bothered by it when there was no reply. "Seiya." He paused and turned at the sound of her saying his name and found her walking over to him. She paused, then smiled down at him. "I love you." His shock allowed her a chance to grab his tie this time, and pull on it so that their lips met. When she pulled away, he was grinning and Yaten was coming to grab his arm and pull him to the stage.

"Even if Kakyuu-hime isn't here, we should keep playing, and I don't know how long the people would hang around with the lead singer missing."

"Ah, calm down Yaten," Seiya said, freeing himself before they reached the stage to straighten his tie. "I don't think they would mind me being a couple minutes late if they knew the reason why. I mean, the media was writing about us before we were even actually a couple... funny how it doesn't seem to be as big a deal now that we actually are, isn't it?"

Yaten sighed and swatted his hand, then took over fixing the tie. "You're so incompentent. And... don't take this as a sign that actually care but... I'd savor the time your relationship isn't being blared all over the place. She's the one that's going to suffer all of the attention when it seems to everyone that she's the victim of another tragedy when we'll pretty much have to make it seem like the three of us were killed." He paused, then turned and walked back onto the stage wo a welcoming roar of applause and shouts.

Seiya stood still for several moments before looking back to where Haruka had gone back to playing on the keyboard. Then he forced his saddened smile into a seemingly happier one before making his way back out into the spotlight.


	17. 16 Run Away from the Tears

A month later, the tour was over and the four of them were back home, the three brothers trying to get over the discouraging thought that they still hadn't found their princess. Taiki and Seiya were taking it considerably better than Yaten because it at least meant they got to spend more time with Ami and Haruka. Rei was doing her best to cheer Yaten, and at times it did appear to be working. It was hard to stay upset during the holidays, especially when Usagi hardly gave them time to sit down before she got them all headed off toward another activity - skiing, ice-skating, parties, parades, a play Hotaru was in at her school, more than a couple of trips to see the Christmas lights in various places, and Haruka had even been pulled into performing with an orchestra at a concert because their usual piano player was sick.

Walking away from that even, Usagi smiled up at her friend. "Does it ever seem to you that maybe it's a little bit too well-known all the things you can do? Racing cars, motorcycles, marathons, piano playing - then with all the things you end up doing with us... you never really get time by yourself anymore, do you?"

Makoto laughed, smiling over at Usagi from her spot next to Minako. "Not with you trying to arrange every minute of everyone else's life!"

Everyone else laughed as Setsuna smiled thoughtfully. "You know, Haruka... I'm not sure if I miss being so much of a loner."

Haruka chuckled with a glance over at the green-haired woman. "I do, at times... but I either get over it pretty quickly or head out to run. But I'm not really compelled to just disappear anymore, like I used to..."

Setsuna smiled down at her almost tearfully. "Kind of feels like we're finally home, doesn't it? It's not something I remember feeling except for rare times during the time of the Silver Millenium, and it's not a feeling that occured very often, even when I was stationed on Pluto."

Hotaru grabbed the older woman's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Helps to have friends and people to love, doesn't it?" She paused to receive the hug that Setsuna stooped down to give her.

Yaten gave a scornful little laugh, backing away a little. Taiki looked over from where he stood next to Ami, holding her hand. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not going to be dragged into any group hug. It's almost inevitable after all that mushy nonsense, and I want no part of it."

Rei grinned a little over at Makoto and Minako, and before the silver-haired idol could do anything to defend himself, the three women had grabbed and pulled him back over into a laughing group of friends to be smashed into the middle of a group hug. Mamoru chuckled from where he had managed to escape having to be involved simply on the basis that he held a sleeping, well-covered Chibi-Usa in his arms. "You should really know better than that by now, Yaten."

"Bah," was all he managed while making an effort to straighten out his pony-tail.

A particular fiery little priestess rolled her eyes, coming over to fix it for him. "You're such a Scrooge. I'm surprised that you even allow yourself to hang out with us and actually participate in all the things Usagi drags us into."

Meanwhile, the group had reached the cars they had used to get here, and a mischievious Makoto had gotten into Minako's car and pulled something out. She came back over it and managed to dangle it over the heads of Yaten and Rei. Minako gave a little squeal. "Aw, mistletoe!"

The two looked up, and Yaten made an effort to scramble away before Rei snagged his tie to pull him back. A moment later, their lips had met in a kiss, and Yaten had actually stopped fighting against it. Seiya chuckled, looking over at Taiki. "Is it just my imagination, or does it seem our dear brother is actually enjoying this?"

Yaten pulled away with a small scowl. "You always have had an active imagination."

"Oh, stop," Rei said, swatting at his arm. "You act like you haven't been kissed before."

Taiki laughed a little. "Actually, I don't think he has. I may be the only one left."

"Nope!" Hotaru said jovially. "I'm right there with you too."

"So am I," Setsuna said with a mock sad-sigh before smiling.

In the mean-time, Makoto had slipped around the edge of the group and snuck up behind another couple. Ami laughed a little and pointed up at where Makoto was stretching her arm high in there to get the mistletoe up above Taiki's head. He blushed, but smiled a little at the expectant look on Ami's face before shyly leaning down to kiss her lightly.

"Well now, isn't this depressing! Now it's just me and Setsuna."

"You're young, Hotaru, you'll get a guy eventually," Setsuna said with a small smile. "Now come on, I know I can't be the only one who's cold out here. Let's get going." Everyone seemed to agree and started climbing into cars. Usagi opened theirs and helped Mamoru get Chibi-Usa settled in as Hotaru and Setsuna got in with Makoto and Minako - the four of them had planned some sort of slumber party so they could start out early the next day to take care of their Christmas shopping. Taiki got into the car he shared with his brothers, next to Ami in the back seat, then Yaten and Rei got in up front while Seiya and Haruka got into her car before they all pulled away.

The next day, the group of friends (minus Haruka and Seiya) had gotten together again - this time at the mansion now owned by the brothers for a Christmas Eve dinner. At the moment, they were settled about the living room with drinks, occasionally munching lightly on crackers or the cut-up vegetables until the main dinner was ready, talking as if they hadn't just seen each other less than twenty-four hours ago. Hotaru looked up from where she andSetsuna were playing with Chibi-Usa by rolling a ball back and forth, attention caught by a conversation between the others about Haruka and Seiya. "Hey, where are those two, anyway?"

The others fell silent at Hotaru's question, and Taiki and Yaten glanced at each other. "Yeah, I haven't seen either of them since after the concert yesterday," Usagi added from her spot curled up next to Mamoru.

"Well, uhm..." Taiki cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Seiya... didn't actually come home last night or all day today either..."

Everyone fell silent, and as if one cue, they heard the front door opening, then being shut. A few moments later, the couple in question entered the living room from the entrance hall. Haruka froze at all their curiously amused expressions, while it took Seiya a bit longer to notice because he was putting their jackets into the hall closet before turning to join her. "Uh... did we suddenly sprout an extra arm or something? What's going on?"

Mamoru chuckled a bit. "We were actually hoping you would tell us that."

"Yeah, so... you guys went back to the apartment and played cards, right?" Makoto said, trying to hide a smirk.

Seiya blushed as Haruka shook her head. "You know, the press left us alone, you would think our own friends could at least do the same."

Ami blushed enough for the rest of them, then apologized on their behalf. Yaten got up and disappeared into the kitchen, then popped back out a moment later to break the tension. "Dinner's ready."

Hotaru got up and took Chibi-Usa with her to help her get settled and was closely followed by Haruka and Seiya, eager to get away from the scenario that had just occured. Mamoru went to help Setsuna pick up Chibi-Usa's various things as everyone else filed toward the dining room. Setsuna smiled a bit up at him as she tucked the things away into the bag from which they had emerged. The two started off toward the dining room. Usagi gave a small giggle, pointing above their heads. "I should mind, but, I know better than to worry."

The two glanced up and spotted the mistletoe that had been placed there. Hotaru and Haruka exchanged a look as Setsuna blushed darkly and Mamoru gave a nervous laugh. As he started to bend down to give her a friendly little kiss, she seemed momentarily frozen before turning and taking off. Seconds later, they heard the front door slam. Usagi frowned. "What was that about?"

Without an explanation, Hotaru and Haruka left the room, slipping past Mamoru in the process. He watched from his spot as Hotaru got her jacket, as well as Haruka's and Setsuna and went after Haruka, who was already making her way out the door. Awkwardly, everyone tried to get back to normal as they settled around the table, though the conversation was a little strained.

It was nearly an hour later when they heard the door open and close once more. There was silence, then Hotaru and Haruka re-appeared in the room. It was apparent that they were both upset and Hotaru had even been crying. Neither had bothered to remove their jacket. "Usagi, do you happen to have your extra key to Setsuna's business?"

Confused, she nodded and rose, left the room momentarily, then came back and handed the key to Haruka. "What... what's going on?"

Haruka only looked at her for a moment, obviously restraining her anger, before she simply turned and left. Hotaru sniffled a little, looked up at the rest of them, and answered in Haruka's place. "Setsuna's leaving, and she said she doesn't think she'll be coming back for a long time. She even wants Haruka to take care of selling her seamstress business."

"Why?!" Makoto asked, just as surprised about this development as everyone else.

Hotaru shook her head, then turned and ran off to catch up with Haruka. Not long after, the dinner party broke up, hoping things would become clearer the next day, and that they would at least be able to enjoy themselves on Christmas with their families, and then when they got together the next day at the mansion to exchange gifts with their friends.

None of the outer senshi showed up.


	18. 17 Bad Surprises, Good Surprises

Several days passed with no word from Hotaru or Haruka. Finally, they both appeared at a New Year's Eve party at the mansion for pretty much everyone they knew. Their usual group of friends were there, along with co-workers of Ami, Makoto, Mamoru, and a few people Minako had been in a couple of movies with. Without any of the other party-goers noticing, they managed to get the former senshi together upstairs, away from the loud music and people below. Hotaru stood quietly by as Haruka started in on her explanation.

"Just to clear up any confusion there might be, I'm only telling you this because Setsuna has no problem with it, because she very well may not be back to see any of us until Earth freezes over - literally. As for myself, I feel that I've been fighting alongside a group of complete idiots since the outer senshi joined the inner senshi. For a group of people who claim to fight to protect love, you certainly have a knack for not noticing it when it's right there in your face."

Rei scowled. "Hey! Aren't you the one who kept trying to run away from the two people in her life that loved her when she-"

Makoto had the good sense to clamp a hand over her mouth. "Somehow, I think now would be a good time to keep your mouth shut, Rei," she said in a small whisper in her ear. "Haruka looks ready to spit nails as it is." She cautiously released Rei, then looked back to Haruka expectantly.

"I may have made mistakes in love in my past, but at least I faced up to my mistakes, and in the end, made up for what I did. But at this point, I don't think there's anything anyone can do to make this up to Setsuna. She was suffering for her love as it was."

Recent events and Setsuna's explanation of why it would never work out for her with the person she was in love with finally came together in his mind. "Setsuna's in love with Mamoru, isn't she?"

Haruka appeared too angry to reply, but Hotaru gave a little nod of her head. That was all it took for Mamoru to blush darkly, and Usagi to gasp, her hands flying up to her mouth. "Oh! And I went and teased her about standing under the mistletoe with him!"

Minako shook her head. "Kind of like rubbing her face in it, isn't it?"

"Especially with all those times we would sit there and constantly talk about Usagi and Mamoru being together..." Ami said with a small sigh, looking sadly at her friends.

"And Setsuna still hired Usagi and let her bring Chibi-Usa in to work with her every single day," Taiki pointed out, wrapping a comforting arm around Ami's shoulders.

Hotaru looked up at Haruka, then the two started away. Rei, sheepish about before, looked after the two. "Where are you guys headed now?"

"Hotaru's dad is having a party too, and some of the kids she's in the drama club with are supposed to show up, so I'm taking her home."

"Are you going to come back here?"

Haruka glanced over to Seiya. "I'm not sure."

"I'll go with you, then." With that, the three of them left. After some uncomfortable silence, the friends went back down stairs and tried their best to enjoy the rest of the evening, though none of them really did.

Nothing was heard for the next few days except that Yaten made a passing mention of Seiya returning home one the second for about an hour, then leaving with a lot of his things. Without any mention to anyone else, it was obvious that the two had decided to move in together. Nothing more was said on the subject, and the group saw nothing of each other for the next few days until they received word that Hotaru was having a birthday party. They all went, of course, but the only ones that seemed to actually be in the mood to enjoy themselves were those who were oblivious to the turmoil going on in their lives - namely Professor Tomoe and the teenagers that Hotaru had invited from school. The friends parted once again, and as more time passed, the more things seemed to return to normal.

Finally, nearly two weeks after Hotaru's birthday party, they received word that Seiya was arranging a sort of surprise party for Haruka at this cabin within the park. It was a building that had been built for this sort of thing, and it was set up within a grouping of trees, far enough from any trails to feel a little secluded. It wasn't hard to get the others to agree, and everyone showed up to decorate and set up tables for food and drinks as Seiya went to get Haruka on the pretense of just going for a walk by themselves.

Hotaru was assigned to watch out the window as the others waited in various hiding places, talking across the room to each other and occasionally daring to get up and get something to drink. "They're coming!" As everyone scrambled to make sure they could jump up on time, Hotaru darted to her spot behind a chair near the door.

The door opened, and right away, they heard Haruka. "Seiya, I really don't think that you're going to find a bathroom here-"

She was interrupted by Seiya flipping on the light, which was promptly followed by everyone leaping to their feet. "Surprise!"

Haruka was startled momentarily, then spotted Hotaru, narrowing her eyes at her in an attempt to look angry. "You know that I hate surprise parties..."

Hotaru simply blew a rasberry as the others laughed, and then wished Haruka a happy twenty-first birthday. The party got started around ten in the morning, they all enjoyed themselves until about one in the afternoon when they all helped to clean up, and the brothers took the presents Haruka had received out to Minako's car, who had volunteered to drive the two home later. They left the cabin to the next group coming in, and ended up going out to the lake to skate. It hadn't been planned, but luckily, there was a stand that had been put up to rent skates. After a couple hours of skating, they took a break from the ice and went to get hot chocolate from another stand that was usually there for the festivals and the winter-time activities that were always going on.

Seiya asked Haruka to stay behind with him, and Taiki and Ami volunteered to get the two of them a hot chocolate. She looked at him curiously, standing with her hands in her pockets just as he was, having returned their skates with everyone else so they could go find something else to do after warming up.

"Haruka... there's not a whole lot that I can promise you at this point except for the fact that I love you," he began, nervously pulling his hands from his pocket.

She smiled a bit at him. "I don't need any promises from you, Seiya. Fate will bring what it will. And... I love you, too."

He returned the smile, nervousness fading away. "That's why I feel I can do this..." Pausing for just a moment, he slowered lowered himself to one knee, then looked up to find a slow blush creeping up onto Haruka's cheeks.

"Seiya..."

Bringing his hands together, he opened the small box that he had been hiding in his hands after bringing it from his pocket to reveal a silver ring within, set with a sapphire surrounded by tiny diamonds. "Will you marry me?"

Her smile widened, blush lingering as all she could do was nod her head.

"Is that a yes?"

She chuckled, reaching down to pull him to his feet. "Yes, it's a yes."

He beamed and took the ring from the box, removed the glove she was wearing on her left hand and slipped the ring on to the appropriate finger. As soon as he had, their lips met in a kiss that lingered on to a point where their friends and wandered back down with their steaming cups of hot chocolate in hand. Minako grinned at the pair. "Are you two sure you need something warm to drink, or are you just going to take care of that for yourselves?"

Seiya blushed a bit and accepted a cup from his brother as Ami handed one over to Haruka. It was Yaten who seemed to take notice first, frowning as he looked over at Haruka, then to Seiya. "Please tell me you didn't."

"Yaten..." Seiya began almost warningly, telling him without any further need of actually saying the words to back off.

The others appeared confused until Makoto reached out and took Haruka's left hand. "Minako's the goddess of love, and I'm the one who spots the engagement ring..."

Usagi squealed and came over to look. She winked teasingly up at Haruka. "And you were telling me it didn't mean anything when I spotted Seiya at your house for the first time..."

Hotaru simply hugged the older woman, and any conversation going on amongst the former inner senshi died away as their attention was drawn to Taiki trying his best to break up an argument between his two brothers. Haruka and Rei both started over to help, then found themselves running forward as the smaller of the two actually launched himself headfirst at the other. There was a small scuffle before the two girls managed to reach in without getting hit themselves, grab at someone's shirt, then yank. As Makoto ran over to help Rei with a still furious Seiya, Yaten was spinning around to attack whoever it was that had pulled him away. Voices had started raising as everyone made an attempt to break up the fight, but silence fell as Haruka caught Yaten's fist before it made contact with her face. "Unless you intend on learning how to perform with only one arm that's not splintered into pieces, I suggest you watch who you swing that fist at. I have absolutely no reservations about hurting you."

Yaten glared for a few moments, and it almost looked like he was going to try and take her on, but he quickly spotted the others who surrounded him and backed down. "Nothing else seems to get through to you two. Do either of you realize that any day now we're going to find Kakyuu-hime and then go home?! It's where we belong!"

"I know that, Yaten, and I probably expect it even more than you do. But if you hadn't noticed, we're both capable of making our own decisions. See, while you may be content to be miserable for the time you spend here which could be any amount of time, the rest of us intend to enjoy our lives. And right now, Seiya and I actually happen to enjoy spending our time together. You seem to be the only one who preferred to have us restraining ourselves from literally killing each other."

"You would have thought that you had had enough heartbreak by now!"

Haruka smirked, shaking her head. "Nope, not enough. But I long ago decided that I couldn't always make my choices based on my fears of the future. If I had, I never would have been a senshi, never would have fallen in love with Michiru, or met any of you guys. And while you might think at this point that that would have been good thing, think twice. If I had never become a senshi, our fighting would have ended long ago, because Earth would have been destroyed."

"That's a little conceited, don't you think?" Yaten asked with a small smirk.

"Not actually," Ami said a bit shyly, causing all attention to be averted to her. "Well, Haruka's strength has proven a big help in many situations, but I think what she's referring to is her talisman. Without all three together, the holy grail would not appear to help create Super Sailor Moon, nor would Hotaru been truly awakened as a senshi. Without Super Sailor Moon and with the strength of two senshi missing, they would have won."

"Then there wouldn't be any planet for you to search for your princess on," Rei pointed out. She glanced to the rest of her friends and forced a small smile. "Does anyone else want to get out of here and go somewhere where it's warm?"

There was a general mumble of agreement as the group started toward where they had parked their cars. Seiya came over to join Haruka, who smirked a little down at him as followed after Minako and Makoto.


	19. 18 Fire and Water

In the next few weeks, there was some more moving going on. Taiki convinced his brothers to forfeit the mansion back to Seiya and Haruka, who moved back not without a considerable amount of trepidation. But, she found that with someone constantly there to help fill the silences in the house, and keep her too busy with plans for the wedding, parties, and a decent amount of re-decorating - it hadn't really been touched outside Nina's room, and the entire house had been made to fit more Michiru's taste than anyone else's - she didn't have much time to dwell on past memories much. Of course, for all three projects, she relied on her friends - a lot. Usagi helped her with the wedding plans, as did Rei since she had gotten her grand-father to agree to allow the wedding be performed there instead of a church. Hotaru and Makoto took care of the few parties that they had there since the engagement - most were just simple gatherings of their friends. Ami and Minako helped with the re-decorating part. Yaten had avoided all of them as much as possible, and Taiki would often drop by to help out with whatever they could. Life was a pleasant chaos that everyone had gotten caught up in, and most enjoyed it as much as they could.

One day, nearly two months after the engagement, the Three Lights scheduled a very short tour - Yaten would have preferred it to be longer, of course, but the wedding was actually another two months away, and neither Seiya or Taiki would let Yaten change anyone's mind about that.

One week, after the band had been gone for nearly a month, Haruka began to almost constantly be ill. She even had to excuse herself one afternoon when Ami had stopped by after work to help her with picking a few final touch sort of things to finish up the decorating. When she came back, she found Ami had abandoned the catalogue they had been looking over and was waiting for her. "Haruka, you really should go see a doctor."

"Nah. It's just a little stomach flu, it'll probably be out of my system by this time tomorrow."

"Haruka... you got sick a few days ago when we all got together for lunch at that restaurant too. This isn't a twenty-four hour stomach virus, this could be serious! Now you can either let me take you to the doctor, or I'll do anything and everything to get Seiya back here to make you."

The blond gave a small, scornful laugh, smirking down at her friend. "Wait... do you actually think that Seiya can make me do anything?" Ami raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed. "Fine, I'll go. The last thing I need is one more thing for Yaten to hate me for." She got up and headed for the door, closely followed by Ami.

Ami smirked a little as the taller woman opened the door and she started walking through, then paused. "You do know that in just over a month, he's going to be your brother-in-law."

Haruka wrinkled her nose. "I prefer not to think about that, actually."

Ami laughed and left the house, followed by Haruka, who made sure to grab her keys and lock the door.

It took them a lot less time to get the the hospital than it did for them to wait for Haruka to be seen by a doctor. When one was finally free, Ami waited for her as she disappeared down the hall with the nurse leading her to the room. After about half an hour of waiting, she spotted them coming back down the hall. The doctor was smiling a bit as he explained something to her before handing over the papers he had jotted his notes down on. Ami got up to join Haruka as she waited for the woman behind the counter to finish filling out a prescription.

"See? Now you can get better instead of being sick every day."

Haruka smirked over at her as she paid for the visit and accepted the slip of paper that held the prescription. "Don't be a know-it-all, Ami... I know generally you do, but don't flaunt it. Besides... he actually said this was perfectly normal and this is nothing more than just something to help calm my stomach. I haven't caught anything."

Ami raised an eyebrow as they both climbed into her car so she could take Haruka to the drug store. "Getting randomly ill to the point of throwing up for a week solid is normal?" She started the car and started backing out as Haruka cast her attention out the window.

Haruka cleared her throat a bit and shifted in her seat. "It is when you're pregnant."

The car came to an abrupt halt as Ami turned to look at Haruka increduously, beaming. "Are you really?!"

She glanced over at her, revealing a small blush on her cheeks before nodding. Ami squealed in delight and put the car into park right in the middle of the parking lot to lean over and hug her friend. "This is so wonderful! Everyone will be so thrilled!"

"Hold up," Haruka said with a small chuckle. "First off, you might want to get the car out of other people's way, you've got a small traffic jam back there." Ami grinned sheepishly before putting the car back into gear and pulling out of the parking lot. "Secondly... don't tell anyone just yet. It's going to be enough of a shock to Seiya to come home and find out I'm seven weeks pregnant, I should at least be the first he hears it from. You know Usagi or Minako would never keep their mouth shut about it."

"Fair enough... but as your friendly neighborhood pediatrician, I get to throw the baby shower."

Haruka laughed a little, shaking her head. "Like I need to feel any more girly about all this..."

Ami laughed as she pulled into the drug store. "Haruka, you don't get any more girly than giving birth... Speaking of girly, Usagi will kill me if she finds out I'm keeping a secret like this from her."

"Tell you what, I'll tell Seiya at the airport when we all go to meet him, and you can fake like you're surprised... That way I can get it over with in one big swoop, neither one of us has to be stuck with the task of telling Yaten to his face... and all of us can see the expression on his face when he finds out."

Ami laughed as they got out of the car. "I can't wait for that."

Two weeks and some odd days later, they were all gathered at the airport to meet with their friends. Gladly, Usagi had been conned out of making a sign welcoming them - they had all leared the hard way how much attention that would attract. Finally, the plane landed and docked with the runway to let passengers off. A few people passed by, some meeting up with others while the rest just walked on through to the baggage claim, before they noticed first Taiki's tall frame emerging. He was followed by Yaten, some strange woman, then Seiya. Seiya was the first to spot them and started over, his brothers and the strange woman following. She had flaming red hair in looped pig-tails, and was actually shorter than Yaten - who, in a shock to everyone waiting for them, was actually smiling.

Taiki was smiling, too, as he began speaking. "Minna... this is Kakyuu-hime. Kakyuu-hime, this is Mamoru, Usagi, and little Chibi-Usa," he paused long enough to tickle the little girl clinging to her mother's hand for dear life before continuing. "Ami, Minako, Makoto, Hotaru, and Haruka."

As Kakyuu-hime bowed politely, the group of former planetary senshi all briefly had their eyes set on Haruka, who had frozen briefly before forcing a smile and returning the bow. "It's wonderful to finally meet you, Kakyuu-hime." Ice broken, the others greeted her as well.

As they headed off to the luggage claims area, Ami hung back a little to match pace with Haruka, since the Three Brothers were still walking beside their princess. "Haruka...? Are you going to be alright?"

"I'm fine... I had no illusions that he would stay here forver. He was only fooling himself when he was trying to convince me..." She trailed off when she noted Seiya dropping back as well. Ami reached over and squeezed her hand before running to catch up with the others.

"Haruka, I know this is really bad timing... the three of them want to go home as soon as possible. But I talked with Taiki and Yaten about it, and they agreed that once she's settled back in at home, we can tell her about everything and I'll come back here -"

Haruka interrupted him with a smile that force, a fact that she did not try to hide. "We'll talk about it later. I'm sure you guys have major jet-lag and just want to go somewhere to get something to eat."

He smiled a little. "I suppose so... but we will talk about it and figure it out, alright?"

"Sure." He beamed at her before taking off to join his family and princess once again.

Later that night, Haruka and Seiya took Kakyuu-hime to the mansion and set up a room for her, since Taiki and Yaten just had the two-bedroom apartment. Kakyuu-hime, who had been watching how Haruka had been acting all night, excused herself to go to bed almost immediately. Haruka and Seiya both settled on the couch in the living room. Seiya started to speak once again, but Haruka stopped him.

"Before you get started, let me say something first... Seiya, I won't be the one that keeps you from being where you feel at home - with your family and princess. I watched you tonight, and I've never seen you so happy. Not on stage, with your friends, and not even when we're alone together. Finding your princess so that you can return home has been your goal all along. You've finally found her, so go."

Seiya frowned a little at her. "Yeah, it was my main goal for a while - but things changed. Now I want to get married and be here on Earth with you - I feel like this is my home now."

She put on a weak smile. "Alright, Seiya... What was the plan you were talking about earlier?"

"Well, the four of us were going to return home, and once everything settled and we're pretty sure it's safe, I'll come back here. Then I can just go back every once in a while and whenever there's trouble. I'm sure at least Taiki will want to come back with me sometimes too, so maybe at times they'll come to Earth with me."

"Alright," she agreed, leaning over to kiss him lightly. "We'll just wait and see how that all works out then... But right now, I'm really tired..." She stood and started for the stairs.

"Haruka." She paused to glance back at him. He stood and walked over to stand before her, taking her hands into his. "I'm not going to leave here and just forget everything I've been through here." He smirked a little. "You're pretty much impossible to forget, even when we hated each other." His expression returned to one of seriousness. "I will come back."

"I know," she said with a faint smile. "It's just that when you'd been gone about a month I got kind of sick - Ami had to convince me to go see a doctor. I just got over this weird virus a couple days ago and I'm kind of worn out."

He frowned. "I wish you'd told me sooner, we could have left early instead of hanging our with everyone and not getting home until nearly midnight..."

"I'm fine now, just tired."

"Well then, maybe I should get in practice then..."

"Practice?" Haruka raised an eyebrow at him before being shocked by him stooping down and picking her up to cradle her like a baby in his arms. He smiled at her before heading up the stairs.

She actually let herself be carried up to their shared bedroom before excusing herself to take a shower. She went into the bathroom and undressed, turned on the shower and got it. She stood under the water and started to reach for the shampoo before she simply sank down to the floor of the tub and cried so long the water began to run cold before she finally got herself together, washed, and got out. She dried and dressed in a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, checked to make sure signs of her crying didn't show, then left the bathroom to climb into bed where she lay awake all night, staring at the ceiling as she thought and Seiya slept peacefully at her side.


	20. 19 Stars

A few days later, they were all gathered once more, this time to bid good-bye to one another. Everything had been set up to fake the death of the world famous idols. Seiya had explained that when he returned, he had no intention of having to lead the same kind of life since they had already found their princess. Ami and Taiki were off to one side, sharing a rather tearful good-bye; Rei was taking advantage of Yaten's good mood and had actually drawn him into a rather long kiss; Kakyuu-hime was bidding farewell to her new friends; and Seiya and Haruka were hanging back and talking quietly for a few moments before kissing, then parting as the three brothers joined their princess. Yaten and Taiki were both blushing, having just broken away from first kisses. The Usagi, Makoto, Minako, Mamoru, Rei, and Chibi-Usa waved good-bye with a small smile as Ami, Haruka, and Hotaru did so a bit more sadly. The four waved back, joined hands and then were gone.

There was silence, then Rei gave a sigh. "They're so never coming back..." Usagi jabbed Rei in the side, who immediately blushed and glanced over at Haruka. "Oh, uhm... I mean 'they' as a group... of course Seiya's coming back!"

Haruka gave a small shrug of her shoulders. "It's alright. I know that he's never coming back. Why would he? He loved Kakyuu-hime before he even came to Earth, and loved her all the time he was here, and he left for her sake. He has no reason to come back."

Ami's eyes widened. "Oh, Haruka... you didn't! You told him, right?"

"Why? To keep him here when he doesn't want to be?"

Everyone else looked at each other to see if anyone else knew what they were talking about, but were only met with expressions as confused as their own. "Uhm... guys? The rest of us could do with a little filling in here. What's going on?"

Ami glanced at Minako briefly, then back to Haruka, who apparently had no intention of answering. She crossed her arms with a frown. "Haruka's a few days short of being two months pregnant."

Usagi gave an excited squeal as shock settled in on the others. A few seconds later, it hit Usagi as well. "Seiya doesn't know he's going to be a daddy!?" She frowned. "Oh, Haruka..."

"Stop it. In fact, don't even start. If Seiya really wants to come back here like he said, he will, and he can find out then. But if I'm right, I don't want to have held him here when he really wanted to leave. He'll be happy, and I'm perfectly capable of raising a happy child. Nina was always happy when everything that led up to her birth was a disaster. The circumstances that made this baby were happy ones."

Hotaru gave a small sigh and spoke what everyone else was more than like thinking, because she knew that Haruka would take her saying it with more ease than if anyone else were to say it. "We know that you can raise a happy baby, Haruka. We all watched you do it once before. But... it's not really fair for Seiya not to know that he's a father. You might think it would have held him here against his will but... his whole attitude would have been changed if he found something like that out. Leaving would have been the furthest thing from his mind because I know he would have been so happy..."

Haruka sighed as the others looked on. "I know that, Hotaru. At one point, before I knew I was pregnant, I was actually considering going with them. But... we had actually talked about having children before, and if love for me and just the thought of having a child with me isn't enough to make him return, then I won't force him to stay by telling him..." she trailed off, giving a small chuckle.

"What's funny?" Makoto asked with a small frown.

"It's just... a couple years ago I hate Seiya so much that I would have liked nothing better than to have killed him. Now... I love him enough to let him follow his heart and to have this baby on my own instead of marrying him and keeping him here..."

Usagi gave a sad smile, walked over and hugged Haruka tightly. She held on as she tilted her head back to look up at her. "You may not believe that love is strong enough to bring him back, but I do. He'll come back and the two of you will get married and bring up the baby together."

Haruka managed a small smile down at Usagi before breaking away and turning to leave. It was hard to be optimistic with her past. Right now, it hurt too much to be optimistic with everything that was at stake.

That night, Ami decided to take a walk to enjoy the warm spring night. The smell of cherry blossoms hung sweetly in the air as the stars shone down from overhead. She gave a small smirk as she thought over the situation she was in now. Here she was, the intelligent one who always made her decisions based on her knowledge or her common sense desperately missing someone that she knew was going to leave all along. Somewhere along the way, she had fallen for the one person that she should have known better than to get close to. She smiled as she thought over the past couple of years, slowly warming up to Taiki as she got to know him on an intellectual level, and then even more so as he began to trust her enough to read her some of his poetry. It hadn't been a typical romance, she knew. But it was going to be one that she would never forget.

As she was making her way past the amphitheater, she thought that she heard music, so she changed her course to go down and investigate. She slipped in through the gate, then started down the steps through the many rows of seats. As she got closer, it slowly became easier to make out who was seated at the piano on the darkened stage. She smiled and sat down about halfway down the stairs and listened to the sad notes as they lingered in the air, playing out a song she knew to be Kaze ni Nari Tai. There was a pause, then Unmei wa Utsukishiku filled the air, followed by a song that she didn't recognize. As it faded out in the middle of the song, Ami rose and walked up to the stage, lifting herself up onto it and walking over to sit next to Haruka at the piano.

She smiled a little over at her. "What was that last song you were playing? It sounded American..."

Haruka gave a half-hearted smile to her in response. "Yeah... it's off this romance movie that Michiru got me to watch one of the times we were there... the song's called 'Time of My Life'."

"Sounds like it should be a little more up-beat than how you were playing it..."

"It is."

Ami smiled faintly, wrapping an arm about Haruka's shoulder. "I know this is going to sound cheesy, but... you've grown up a lot in the past couple of years, Haruka... and a lot of it had to do with Seiya."

"How do you mean?" Haruka turned her attention back to the piano as she lightly played a few notes.

"You're not running away from something that's hard for you to face. Michiru got you to face you destiny as a senshi, but somewhere along the line, Seiya's the one that got you to stop being such a loner. Instead of running away from hard problems to figure them out yourself, you're hanging around here and talking to me, of all people."

Haruka gave a small laugh. "Why not you? You're going through the same thing I am. Usagi and Mamoru are together, Rei and Yaten really never developed real feelings for each other, Hotaru's never really had a chance to fall in love, Minako and Makoto... well..."

Ami laughed softly. "Took a page from your book."

She smiled a bit. "Yeah... and then Setsuna's still off at the Gates."

Ami took a deep breath, looking out over the darkened seats before looking back to Haruka with a smille. "You know, a vacation does sound nice."

Haruka looked at her a moment, then chuckled, looking back to the piano. "Ami, are you talking about running away?"

The blue-haired girl grinned at her. "I guess I am."

"What is it with you water types wanting to run off with me?"

She swatted her arm. "Don't look too much into this, Haruka. I just thought about it because the hospital is pretty much insisting that I take a vacation... they think that I work too hard."

"They're right."

Ami blew a rasberry before standing back up. "Maybe we could find a way to get Setsuna to come with us."

"You know, this is almost starting to sound like a very odd sitcom... Cute, pixie-like pediatrician who works too hard gets her heart broken the same way as the former lesbian loner who has a thing for running and suggests they run off along with the older woman who's in love with the man she can never have."

"Think anyone would watch?"

Haruka chuckled, gathering her jacket and keys as she stood up. "Why not? I'm interested. Now all we have to do is get -"

"Me?" The two friends turned and found Setsuna standing a couple rows back from the stage. She smiled as they both hopped down from the stage and walked to meet her. "Knowing the future sometimes has its perks... like the fact that I knew what you two were going to be planning... But I'm still not ready to face any of the others yet..."

"We could always pull a Haruka and disappear without telling anyone."

Haruka scowled a bit as Ami grinned at her. "You'll at least have to tell the hospital... with how you're usually so against taking time off, they'll think you were kidnapped and send the police after Setsuna and me."

Ami laughed a bit. "Alright, alright... I'll go in tomorrow and tell them I'm going to take a couple of weeks off... Haruka, you should probably make whatever travel plans we'll need to start off... and I'd better get home. Usagi's supposed to be coming over tonight." She waved to the two of them as she left the out-door arena and disappeared into the shadows of night.

"It never ceases to amaze me how smart she is at times..." Setsuna said with a small smile, sitting down in one of the seats.

"Yeah... running off by myself never solved anything, and staying around people who either look at me like they pity me or try too hard to help me just seems to make it worse." Haruka sat down next to her with a small sigh.

"It helps to have other people know what you're going through, that have cried the same tears as you." She smiled faintly as Haruka turned to glance at her. "I see the future, remember? I've watched all those times you've cried, even when no one else was there. I'm just sorry I couldn't prevent it..."

"No, it's okay... to prevent the things from happening that cause pain, you'd have to stop all the good things from happening too. I used to think that that was the way to do things, but..."

"Amazing how friends and the people you love can change your life so drastically, isn't it?" Setsuna gave a sigh, leaning back to look up at the sky. She smirked a bit. "Did Seiya ever point out his old planet to you?"

Haruka lifted an eyebrow at her. "Point out a planet that's light-years away? Why?"

Setsuna pointed up to the sky to an arrangement of four stars. "See the stars that sort of form a triangle? The larger one in the middle is Kakyuu's, of course... the one above it is Yaten, the one below is Taiki, and the one beside it is Seiya." She looked back to Haruka, smiling faintly as she saw her. Wrapping her arms around her, she held on tight as Haruka allowed herself to cry in silence for a while before pulling back and wiping off her cheeks, muttering a small apology. "It's not a bad thing to cry, Haruka. It kind of lets others know that underneath all that tough exterior, you're still human... well... basically." She gave a small smile. "Things won't always be this hard to handle, Haruka. There will come a time when looking back on your life the past couple of years won't cause you as much pain because you'll have so much that will make you happy. Something will always be happening to remind you, and bad things will never stop happening... but there will come a time when it won't hurt as much because you'll have something to make you happy again, without having to run away."

"Just not today."

Setsuna smiled a bit at her. "No. This is going to hurt for a while... Ami too. But, without going against the rules... things will change, Haruka. Look you quickly they changed with you and Seiya... Happiness will come again. I promise."

Haruka smiled faintly and the two fell into a comfortable silence and spent the rest of the night gazing up at the stars.


End file.
